


In which everything is a little less terrible.

by all_the_ships_are_sailing



Category: Love Victor (TV 2020)
Genre: Anxiety, Canon Divergent, Coming Out, First Person, M/M, POV Benji, POV Victor, Switching Perspectives, mention of previous unhealthy relationship dynamics, relationship trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-01-26
Packaged: 2021-03-14 14:29:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 23
Words: 47,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28796904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/all_the_ships_are_sailing/pseuds/all_the_ships_are_sailing
Summary: A canon-divergent version of S1 in which Victor comes out to Benji instead of kissing him on that gross motel bed in Willacoochee.Most of this will be first person from Victor's POV, but there's a couple things I want to include that are going to need to be from Benji's POV instead. Each chapter will be notated.
Relationships: Benjamin "Benji" Campbell/Victor Salazar
Comments: 38
Kudos: 92





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victor's POV.
> 
> That night in Willacoochee.

I put my pants on the dresser and am about to step away when I notice Benji’s wallet and keys. His wallet is face-up and his Driver’s License is visible which is interesting to say the least after the story I heard this morning. I don’t know if he notices me staring, but I do and then I finally turn to him.

“I, uh… thought you never passed your driver’s test.” The look on his face tells me this isn’t something he really wants to talk about, but I can’t help the curiosity. _Why would you lie about that?_

“That wasn’t exactly true,” he says, closing his eyes. I look down at my feet for a second. “I have a license. It’s just… suspended.”

Before I can stop myself, I ask “Why? What happened?”

He looks away and seems uncomfortable. I almost take back my questions, but then he tells me. “Before I came out, I was kind of a mess.” He glances at me and then continues. “I knew I was gay, but I didn’t want to be.” This sounds too familiar. “So I drank. A lot.” He pauses and looks at me for a second. I look down as he continues. “And then one night, I got super wasted, and decided that I wanted Wendy’s real bad.” He glances at me and then exhales loudly. “So, I took my dad’s car to the drive-thru, and that’s exactly what I did. Drove through… the Wendy’s.”

“Oh my God,” I say. I finally sit on the bed next to him and we’re looking at each other as he continues.

“Yeah. Luckily no one was hurt. But I totaled my dad’s car.”

“Wow,” I say and look down at my lap. I can feel his eyes lingering on my face, like he doesn’t know how I’m going to react to this news. But it doesn’t bother me. If anything, it’s nice to know more about him. This whole day has just been _nice_. Even if we’re stuck in some middle of nowhere town because of a lie I told. “That’s intense,” I say when he doesn’t continue. He nods and rolls his upper lip in for a second as I look back to him. “Were, were you okay, or…?”

“Yeah. Yeah, just… banged up. But waking up in the hospital with my parents standing over me, it made me realize that I could have died without ever really being who I was.” He shrugs a little. “So, that’s when I came out.” He looks at me and I look away, back to my own hands in my lap. “Hey, um, no one at school really knows about the accident, so, if, if you could –“

“Yeah,” I say immediately. “I won’t say anything.” He nods and exhales a sigh of what feels like relief. “But thank you for telling me.”

We’re looking at each other without really seeing. “Yeah. Of course. You are so easy to talk to,” he says. He’s almost laughing and when he meets my eyes, I look down at my hands again. “I’m really glad you started working at Brasstown.”

“Me, too,” I agree. And I am, but it also makes everything that much worse. Because now I know Benji. I know how amazing Benji is, but it still doesn’t make a difference. I can’t actually do anything about it. He has a boyfriend and I’m dating Mia. Though, the longer I talk to Benji, the more I realize I probably shouldn’t be. I think he notices when I drop my eyes over his body for a second, because he looks away, to his own hands and sighs.

“I guess we should probably get to sleep, huh?” he says. And he’s probably right, but honestly, I wish I could stay in this moment and talk to him all night instead.

“Yeah, yeah. We should,” I agree halfheartedly. We look away from each other and it feels like something’s different, but I can’t put my finger on it. He clears his throat.

“Goodnight,” he says.

“Goodnight,” I say back.

He turns away from me and turns out the light on his side of the bed before rolling onto his side. I can’t help but watch him. And suddenly I want to tell him. I want him to know. I’ve never wanted someone to know before. I thought I did, but right now. In this moment, is the only time it’s actually been true. He sighs and there’s a huge flash of lightning through the window above the bed.

I watch him for a long minute and I know I have to do it before it’s too late. Before I lose my nerve. Before I stop wanting to. I reach out my hand and touch his shoulder. The t-shirt he’s wearing. The one he bought at the thrift store earlier is soft and it’s comforting in some weird way.

He rolls over and mumbles. “Hey,” then he looks at my face and I know he can tell something’s wrong when he asks, “Is everything okay?” He sort of scrambles into a seated position because I guess my face must be a total mess.

“Yeah, uh, I wanted to tell you something.”

“Okay,” he says quietly. He tilts his head, clearly trying to watch my face.

I turn away from him. “I really want to tell you this, but I’m kind of freaking out a little,” I admit. He doesn’t say anything. “I’m sorry, this is probably really weird.”

“You’re good,” he says quietly. I hear him shifting and the bed moves a little. I don’t look at him. I _can’t_ look at him.

“I…” I start to say, but I choke on the word. I take a deep breath. “I think,” I say, but shake my head. “No, I…I’m pretty sure…” I sigh. “Why is this so hard?” I say with exasperation.

He doesn’t say anything for a second and neither do I and then his hand is on my shoulder and I can’t help but look at him. He has the softest expression I’ve ever seen on his face and it feels like I’m melting. “If you’re trying to say what I think you’re trying to say…” he says, biting his lip.

“I am,” I say. Because I can tell that he knows.

He nods and then wraps his arms around me. “Practice,” he says. “Say the words. Say it out loud. To yourself. When you’re alone. To people you trust. It gets easier, but it’s never not hard,” he says.

I sigh. He doesn’t let go. “Telling you should be the easy part,” I say. “I know you’re not going to care.”

“I care,” he says. “But I know what you mean.”

We’re quiet for a long time, but he never drops his arms. At some point I start crying. He still doesn’t move. “Does anyone else know?” he asks after a while.

“Not really,” I say, drawing back so I can wipe my eyes. “I mean. I guess Simon does, but I’ve never… never actually told anyone.”

“Simon?” he asks. He pulls back, and puts his hands on my shoulders to look at my face with a raised eyebrow. “Who’s Simon?”

I chuckle. I’m sure Benji knows who Simon is. Everyone at Creekwood does. “Uh… Simon Spier?” I clarify.

His eyes go wide. “Creekwood’s gay legend Simon Spier?” he confirms and I nod. “Was not expecting that.”

I laugh. “It’s sort of a long story.”

“We have time,” he says.

I chuckle a little and actually look at his face. He’s not mad. He’s not upset. He’s just looking at me. He’s looking at me like he actually wants to hear my story. Like he actually cares and I think I’m melting again. He half-smiles at me and I have no idea what my face is giving away, so I swallow hard and try to go blank. He chuckles. I bring my hands to my face between his arms and cover my eyes. “That embarrassing?” He asks, trying to pull my hands away. I nod and hold onto my own face. “I doubt it. Pretty sure my coming out was worse,” he adds.

I take a deep breath. He told me about _that_. Surely, I can tell him about this. I take a deep breath and spread my fingers enough to peek at his face. He’s smiling at me and I don’t know if I can do this. “Can you… can you not?” I ask stupidly.

He raises an eyebrow. “Can I not what?”

“I don’t know. Just can you not look at me like that?”

He laughs. “Like what?”

I gesture vaguely at his face and he keeps laughing, putting his hand on his chest trying to act like I’ve hurt him in some way. “The smiling and the…” I try to explain

“I’ll try,” he says and he makes a show of straightening out his mouth and trying to show no emotion. I can’t help but laugh now and then he’s laughing again, too. And a minute later, we’re trying to stop laughing, but neither of us can breathe and there’s just something about this moment that’s perfect. Once we finally settle down, he tilts his head at me and half-smiles again. “You were saying?”

“Right,” I say. “You’re not just going to forget about me even knowing Simon, are you?”

“Definitely not. How do you… How _do_ you know him?”

I sigh. “Uh, well, my first day at Creekwood was pretty fucking shitty,” I say. He chuckles. I look at him.

“I was there.”

I shake my head a little. “You were and you were basically the only not shitty part of it, if I’m being fair.” I feel my face heat up. _Why did I tell him that?_ Now he’s smirking at me. “But anyway,” I say trying to get off that subject. “Ms. Albright told me about Simon and Bram and the Creek Secrets post and the Ferris wheel and…yeah. Anyway. When I got home that day, I looked him up on Instagram.”

“Did you seriously slide into his DMs?” Benji asks and he starts laughing again.

“Stop laughing at me,” I say, crossing my arms over my chest.

He stops laughing and give me puppy dog eyes that make me feel like I’m melting again. “I’m sorry,” he says. “Please continue.”

I try to remember how to breathe, but it’s really hard when he’s looking at me like that, so I close my eyes. And after a second, his hands are on my shoulders again and my eyes spring open. He chuckles and bites his lip. “Sorry,” he says again. “Really.”

I take a deep breath and exhale loudly. He smiles at me and I close my eyes again. “Yes,” I say. “I did ‘slide into his DMs’. But not like you’re imagining, I’m sure.”

He nods. “Okay.”

“I basically said ‘screw you’ to him a thousand times over and then told him about my day which was really weird and probably a little dumb, I’m still kind of shocked he replied.” I shrug. “And I guess he’s sort of been helping me a lot ever since.”

Benji tilts his head at me and it looks like he’s deep in thought trying to piece things together. “You said you didn’t tell him.”

“I didn’t.”

“Okay, but you said he knows.”

“He does.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“I didn’t tell him… that I’m… that I’m…” I still choke on the word.

Benji smiles and puts his hand on my forearm. “Just say it. You’ll feel a lot better,” he says and I can’t help but look at his face. He smiles more. “I promise.”

And it’s weird, but I trust him. I somehow know that he’s right, so I finally choke out the word. “I didn’t tell him that I’m gay,” I say and it’s like this huge weight comes off of me in that instant and my face must betray me, because he’s chuckling.

“Told you.”

I nod. “You did,” I agree. “You were right.”

He chuckles again. “I usually am.” I roll my eyes. “Sorry.”

I laugh and he pulls his hand back from my arm. “You are though,” I agree. “But anyway. I didn’t tell him, but he definitely knows because of the things I _have_ told him.”

“Such as?”

“Yeah, not telling you that. Sorry.”

“So, I tell you about the worst night of my life. Something literally no one else knows about, save my parents and Derek, and here you are refusing to tell me something you’ve already told someone you don’t even really know?”

I close my eyes and put my face in my hands again. “True,” I say. “Okay.” I try to figure out how to word this. How to tell him without telling him. “I’ve told him about Mia and about how maybe she’s my ‘impossible burger’ so to speak.” He raises an eyebrow. “I didn’t think I’d like it until I tried it,” I explain quickly. He nods. “But I think I’ve realized that’s not how this works. I’m just scared shitless of everyone knowing and especially of telling her. But Simon’s been… really great?” Those aren’t the right words. “He’s really good with words and I _clearly_ am not.”

He half-smiles. “I told you I’ve slept with girls, right?”

I nod. “Yeah. Right before I failed to.”

He chuckles. “Yeah. But it’s something that happens to a lot of us,” he says. “We think, hey, this girl’s cool, maybe she’s the exception. Maybe I can be ‘normal’.” I nod because what he’s saying makes so much sense it’s like he’s inside my brain. “But the truth is, we _are_ normal. Or there’s no such thing as normal, I guess. Everyone is different. There’s nothing wrong with you; just because you happen to like guys instead of girls,” he says.

“I’m not so sure my family would agree with that statement,” I say half-heartedly.

He nods. “I sort of guessed that might be your big hang up. After your birthday party and all.” I chance looking at him and he’s still smiling at me for some reason.

I sigh. “I’m still really sorry about that.”

“Don’t be,” he says, shaking his head. “It wasn’t your fault. It’s hard. It’s always hard, but you did the right thing,” he says. “And, I realize after what you told me tonight that it was probably way harder on you than I gave you credit for at the time. It takes a lot of guts to stand up to someone like that; even more so when they’re family. What you said to your grandpa; to you dad? That was incredibly brave, Victor. It was incredibly amazing. I never would have been able to do that when I was still in the closet.”

He has this look on his face; a look that one might call pride. _He’s proud of me_. And that unravels all kinds of emotions I’m not ready to deal with, so I close my eyes and turn my head. “After you left. After everyone left,” I say quietly. “My dad came to my room.” I glance back at him and he looks concerned. “He said he was proud of me for standing up to Tito. He said he agreed with me. He said it didn’t matter what ‘some boys in [my] school’ were doing. It actually made me think for a second that maybe this wouldn’t be as hard as I thought it was going to be.”

Benji’s smiling at me and I’m melting again. The words are starting to slip away, so I quickly look away again. I stare at the wall over his shoulder instead. “Then he said he hopes Tito’s wrong about my brother and I realized his agreement only extends to people that aren’t his son.”

“Your brother?” he asks. “The little one?”

I nod. “Yeah, Adrian. Um, when my grandparents got there. Before the party. Adrian was playing with his Elsa wand. It’s his favorite thing.” Benji’s face falls and I know he knows where this is going. “Tito called it a ‘fairy wand’ and asked my dad why he lets Adrian play with girls’ toys. My dad just made some excuse and said Adrian was ‘very macho’.” I sigh a little at the ridiculousness of the whole thing. “Later, when they met Mia. Tito said something about at least one of us giving him great grandchildren.”

“ _God._ ” Benji says. “That’s really shitty.”

“Yeah,” I say, nodding and finally looking back at his face. “But that’s Tito.”

“I’m sorry,” he says. And I look at him, why is he apologizing. “I’m sorry you have to deal with that. My parents aren’t the best about the whole thing either,” he says. “But not like that. They just pretend it’s not happening for the most part. Or at least my dad does. My mom tries to pretend she doesn’t care. Tries to pretend she happy for me or whatever, but I can see it in her eyes that she doesn’t like it. I think she’s just trying because she doesn’t want me to start drinking again,” he says.

“That sucks,” I say.

“Yeah,” he agrees. “It does.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victor's POV.
> 
> Returning from Willacoochee and talking to Mia about everything.

Eventually we do go to sleep, but it must be close to 4 in the morning by then. It’s so weird, but so refreshing that he knows now. I’m still freaking out that I might say something dumb. Make him realize how I feel about him. I can’t do that. _He has a boyfriend_ , I keep repeating to myself. I think that might be my new mantra. _He has a boyfriend. You can’t say that. You can’t make this any more complicated._

I park Sarah’s car outside Brasstown just before noon and we carry the espresso machine inside. I’m pretty sure Sarah’s about to hug us once we set it down. “Finally,” she breathes and we both laugh.

“Sorry it took so long,” I say. Benji still doesn’t know I lied to him about that.

She rolls her eyes. “I love Wally, I do, but the old man sure knows how to take his time.”

“Yeah,” I say awkwardly.

“Well, anyway,” she says. “It’s here now.” I pull her keys out of my pocket and hold them up. “Thanks,” she says and holds out her hand for me to drop the keys.

“I should go home,” I say, glancing toward the door.

“Me, too,” Benji says.

Sarah doesn’t argue. Neither of us are actually scheduled today. We walk outside together; Benji holds the door for me when we get there. “Thanks,” I say, smiling at him.

“You’re welcome.” He glances around awkwardly. “So, are you going to tell Mia?”

“I think I kind of have to at this point.”

“You know I won’t tell anyone, right?”

I nod. “Yeah. I trust you,” I whisper. “Um, you can tell Derek if you want. I know he’s probably going to ask what happened this weekend, and I don’t mind him knowing,” I say.

“Are you sure?”

“He wouldn’t tell anyone either, right?”

“No, of course not. But you don’t even really know him…”

I shrug. “Either way. You can or not. I really don’t care.”

He tilts his head. I don’t think he believes me. “Vic…”

“Benji, I’m serious. He’s your boyfriend. I don’t want to be the reason you’re hiding shit from him.” I shrug. “I’m already hiding shit from Mia. I don’t need to ruin another relationship on top of that one.”

“That wouldn’t ruin…”

“You know what I mean,” I say, waving my hand at him. “I’m gonna go. I want to message Simon actually. And then I should really go talk to Mia.”

“Let me know how it goes with Mia,” he says.

I chuckle. “If I survive.”

He laughs. “She’s not going to murder you.”

“Yeah. I guess that’s true. I’ll talk to you later,” I say. I don’t wait for a response before I shove my hands into my pockets and start walking toward home. I convince myself not to look back at him even though I really want to. _One thing at a time_.

I walk through the door of the apartment and my family are all in the living room. “Hey,” I say. “What are we doing?”

My mom laughs. “Waiting for you!”

I raise an eyebrow. “Okay, well. I’m going to go change. And then I think I’m going to go to Mia’s. I need to apologize to her about last night.” _And tell her the truth_ , I add in my head. _One thing at a time._

“Did everything turn out alright with the whole work thing?” my dad asks.

“Yep. He finished up first thing this morning. We dropped off the machine and Sarah’s car at Brasstown and headed home.”

“Good,” he says.

“Yeah,” I mumble and then head for my room. I quickly change into different clothes and then open my laptop and go to Instagram.

> _Dear Simon, I told Benji. I mean I came out to him. I also told him about messaging you. It was a weird night. Saying the words out loud was like some sort of magic trick. I didn’t realize how good that would feel. Thanks for everything you’ve done for me, btw. But now I have to do the actual hard part. I’m going to ask Mia if I can come over. I’m going to tell her the truth. I just hope she doesn’t hate me when I’m done. – Victor_

I close my laptop and pull out my phone. I already have a text from Benji. _Good luck. [smiling emoji]_

I laugh a little. This weekend has been so perfect, but I can feel the real world starting to crumble around me already. _Thanks_. I type back and then I flip to a conversation with Mia. _I’m really sorry about last night. I just got home. Can I come over today?_

She responds a few seconds later. _Sure. Come whenever you want._

_On my way._ I grab my wallet and keys, pull a jacket on and head for the door. My family is still in the living room. “Going to Mia’s,” I tell them when they look at me with questions in their eyes.

“Tell her hello from us,” my mom says.

“Yeah,” I agree and then I’m out the door. I run into Felix on the stairs.

“Hey man! How was that party at Mia’s last night?”

“I didn’t go.”

“What?”

“Um, I ended up having to go to Willacoochee with Benji to get the espresso machine fixed. It, uh, wasn’t done in time, so we had to stay overnight and we just got back. I’m actually going to Mia’s now.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, what?”

“What? What?” I ask.

“You had to stay overnight? You missed the party?”

I sigh. “Yeah, and it wasn’t really a party. It was some fundraiser for the university her dad works for. Anyway, I gotta go,” I say, turning for the stairs

“Where are you going?” he asks before I can take another step.

“Mia’s. Like I said.”

“Oh! Alright, go on then. Have that good apology sex.”

I close my eyes and run my hand down my face. “Yeah, not happening.”

He raises an eyebrow. “You still don’t want it?”

I don't know how to respond to that, so I give him an exasperated look. “Something like that. Look. We’ll talk later, Felix. I gotta go.”

He doesn’t argue this time and I escape the building and start walking to Mia’s. I’m turning the corner onto Mia’s street when my phone buzzes. _My dad and Veronica are still here. So if you want to wait until later…_

_Um, as long as we can talk in private, it’s fine. I just feel like I owe you some explanations._

_You already explained, Vic. It’s fine. I get it._

_I didn’t tell you the whole story._

_What?_

_Can we talk now or should I come back later? I’m almost there._

_We can talk._

I take a deep breath and start up the stairs toward her house. I press the door bell and the door swings open. A woman, who I assume is Veronica answers. “You must be the elusive Victor,” she says with a weird half-smile.

“Uh, yeah,” I say with a nod.

“Mia,” she calls toward the stairs. “Your boyfriend’s here.”

Mia rolls her eyes as she walks toward us. “I know. Thanks, Veronica.” She gives me a look as if she’s trying to figure out what I haven’t told her. I sigh. She grabs my hand and pulls me up the stairs and into her room, closing the door behind us. “So, what didn’t you tell me?” she asks, crossing her arms over her chest.

I take a deep breath and look at my feet. “Not about last night,” I say quickly. She doesn’t need to know that I lied to Benji. He doesn’t even know that. “Just in general.” She huffs loudly. “Can... Can we sit?” I ask, gesturing to her bed.

She nods one and sits on the edge of the bed with another loud sigh. I sit next to her. She turns to look at me, but I keep my eyes on my hands in my lap. “I’ve been confused for a long time,” I say. She doesn’t say anything. “And when I met you, I was more confused than ever. And when I started spending more time with you… and kissing you… I was _really_ confused,” I admit. “I thought maybe… maybe you were the exception to the rule and I _so_ badly wanted there to be an exception to the rule.” I chance looking up at her.

“You’re gay,” she says. It’s not a question. I nod a little. “Okay,” she says with a sigh, looking away from me.

“I’m sorry, Mia.” She doesn’t say anything and keeps staring at her dresser across the room. “I really am,” I insist. “I wanted this to work. I wanted it to work so bad. You’re an amazing person. You’re my favorite person. I love spending time with you. I love _you_ … just not like that. I thought I could. For a while I thought I did, but I don’t and…”

“Did something happen with Benji last night?” she asks, suddenly looking at me. “Is that why you’re telling me now?”

“What? No! Oh my God, no. He has a boyfriend.”

“Okay,” she says. “What changed then?”

I bite my lip and sigh. “No one knows about this, okay? Please, don’t tell anyone.”

“I wouldn’t.”

“Not just the gay thing. I'm... What I’m about to tell you. You can’t tell anyone. Especially not Benji,” I explain, shaking my head slightly.

She raises an eyebrow at me, but nods. “Okay.”

“I lied,” I say. “Last night.”

“Something _did_ happen?”

“No, no. I lied _to Benji_ and you, but that’s not the point. I mean, I guess it is the point, but just let me explain, okay?” She nods and doesn’t say anything. “When the repair guy told us it might take a while to fix the machine. We decided to go kill time. We went to this weird thrift store and just tried on a bunch of random stuff. I was trying to find something to wear in case we didn’t get back in time for me to get home and change before your dad’s thing,” I say. “Uh, Wally… the repair guy called me and said the machine was done just as we were checking out.”

“It _was_ done.”

I nod. “Yeah. But I hung up and told Benji that it wasn’t done and that we’d have to stay the night like Sarah said. I put the outfit for your dad’s thing back. He bought a t-shirt.”

“Why did you lie? Did you just not want to come to the fundraiser? You could have just told me that. I told you it didn’t matter.”

I almost laugh. “It wasn’t that. I just realized I was having a really good time with Benji and I… didn’t want it to be over. When I was with him, I felt like I could finally just be myself without trying to be something I’m not. I didn’t have to think so much,” I say.

“But nothing happened?” she asks again.

“Nothing happened," I assure her again. "I mean, I did come out to him, but nothing _happened._ He hugged me and was kind of the best actually, but that’s it. He has a boyfriend.”

“Right,” she says. “That apparently doesn’t stop people,” she mumbles.

“What are you talking about?”

“Last night,” she says. “Andrew’s dad was at the party and so was Andrew.”

“Did you…”

She snorts a little. “No. But he made me a grilled cheese at one point.”

“What?”

“It’s a long story. I was hiding up here, because I hate those stupid fundraisers. It was actually when you called to say you weren't coming. Um, he came and found me... and brought me a grilled cheese. He apparently snuck into the kitchen to make it, because the food was pretty shitty. Um, and then he tried to kiss me. I kicked him out right away.”

“The fuck?” I say. “I’m sorry. I know Andrew’s an asshole, but why the fuck would he…”

She sighs loudly. “Yeah. Again, it’s a long story.”

“Were you and him… I mean, before…”

She closes her eyes and sighs. “No one knows about that. Not even Lake,” she says.

I raise my eyebrows. “But you were...”

“It didn’t last long. It was last fall. We were young. I was dumb. It moved too fast. I ended it.”

I nod. “I’m sorry about dumping all this on you,” I say quietly.

“Thank you for being honest with me,” she says. “Um, I know you probably don’t want to tell anyone the real reason, but we’re going to have to tell people we broke up.”

I nod and swallow. “Yeah, um,” I say, shrugging. “Up to you how you want to do that, but you’re right that we need to.”

She thinks for a second and then pulls out her phone. “Let’s just do it and if people start asking, we can just say we decided we’re better as friends?” I see her opening Facebook.

I nod. “Sounds good to me.” I swallow. “I _am_ going to tell people,” I say. “Just not right now. One thing at a time, you know?”

She smiles and nods. “Yeah. I have no idea what that’s like, but I can’t imagine it’s easy. I heard what your grandpa said at your birthday party. I don’t imagine he’d take the news so well.”

I nod. “Yeah. Not just him, but yeah.”

“I’m still here if you wanna talk about it,” she says. “I am still your friend.”

“Really?” I ask, tilting my head and smiling a little.

“Yeah, of course. You can’t help this. I’m just glad you figured it out before this went on too long. I, uh, really like you, Victor, but clearly that’s not an option anymore,” she says with a shrug. “So…”

“Thanks, Mia. That really means a lot.”

“Don’t mention it. Um, ready to do this?” she asks, holding up her phone so I can see the screen. She’s changed her relationship status to single and her finger is hovering over the save button.

“Yep. Let’s do it,” I say and she clicks the button.

I pull out my phone and change mine, too. I swear Benji must be staring at his phone, because he immediately sad reacts and then texts me. _I take it you told her._ I laugh out loud and Mia looks at me. “Uh, Benji,” I say. “He must have been staring at Facebook.”

She chuckles. “You like him, right?” My eyes go wide and I bite my lip without saying anything. “I’m gonna take that as a yes.”

“It’s not like it matters. He has a boyfriend,” I say for what feels like the hundredth time today. She’s still looking at me. “But, yeah, I do.”

She chuckles a little and smirks at me. “You know Derek’s kind of a jerk, right?”

“What?”

She chuckles. “Yeah. Um,” she says, biting her lip. “I probably shouldn’t tell you about this, to be honest. Just forget I said anything, but he's a jerk.”

I raise an eyebrow at her. “What are you talking about? Derek’s great. He and Benji are great together. They’re happy.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” she says. “But it’s not my place.”

“Mia…”

She groans and rolls her head. “Let’s just say, before he was with Benji, Derek dated someone I know’s older brother and it was _not_ a healthy relationship. He got really possessive and refused to do a lot of things Brandon wanted to do,” she says. “He just has a history of being a pretty shitty boyfriend.”

“Maybe he’s gotten better,” I say, shrugging. But just knowing that he _might_ be treating Benji badly sort of breaks my heart.

“Maybe,” she agrees with a nod. She looks away to her phone and busies herself with it, sighing grandly. Avoiding my eyes, I’m pretty sure.

“Do you know something I don’t?” I ask. She looks up at me. "Other than what you just said."

“I just know the way Benji looks at you,” she says, smiling. “He likes you, too. Even if he doesn’t want to admit it. And I’ve seen him and Derek argue more often than I’ve seen them happy,” she says and then she shrugs. “But whatever. It’s not my business.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Benji POV.
> 
> Derek confronts Benji after the latter returns from Willacoochee.
> 
> [This chapter is pretty short, but I wanted to include this bit of the story.]

I text Victor when I’m almost to my house. _Good Luck. [smiling emoji]_

He texts back a second later. _Thanks._

I sigh as I open the front door of the house. “I’m home,” I call out toward the living room where I can hear the TV on.

“Oh!” my mom says, coming out of the living room. “Get everything straightened out?" she asks.

I chuckle at the irony of her word choice. “Uh, yeah. The machine’s all fixed.” She smiles at me. “Uh, look, I’ve been ignoring Derek’s phone calls all weekend, so I really need to go call him,” I say and start toward the stairs.

“Why were you ignoring him?” she asks. “Did something happen?” she sounds almost hopeful.

I roll my eyes and breathe out a little chuckle. “Nothing happened. Not really." I sigh. "It’s kind of complicated.”

She doesn’t argue, so I head for the stairs. I close my bedroom door behind me and sink onto the side of my bed, pulling my phone out. I press send on Derek’s number. It rings five times and then his voicemail answers. “You’ve reached Derek. Leave a message.” I sigh. He never checks his voicemail, so I hang up as soon as it beeps and text him instead. _Hey, I’m sorry for ignoring you all weekend. I had to go out to Willacoochee and get the stupid espresso machine fixed again. Just got home._

_I’ll be there in 5 minutes. I expect a better explanation than that._

I groan. _My parents are here. I’ll come outside._ I get back to my feet and shove my phone into my pocket. What on earth does he want me to say? He ran away from our anniversary date on Friday night without really apologizing. He cared more about getting to his friends’ show than anything I did. And I had to work all weekend. And honestly, I don’t know what I’m going to tell him and that’s probably a bad thing, but I don’t care. I’m standing on the front porch when he pulls into the driveway. I get into his car and buckle the seatbelt without really looking at him.

“Okay, what the fuck is your deal?” he spits, turning to face me.

I turn to look at him and he’s angry. It makes me laugh. “Why are you so pissed off? You’re the one that fucking ran away to your friends’ show on Friday night when I had a whole fucking thing planned.”

“Are you really still on about that? Anniversaries are bullshit, Benji. I’m sorry, but they are. They’re heteronormative and complete bullshit. Why do you care so much?”

I close my eyes and sigh. “Because I wanted to do something special for you.”

“And I wanted to go to Ty’s show.”

“Yeah,” I say, looking down at my hands. "It's all about what you want."

“Where the hell have you been anyway? You weren’t at work and you weren’t answering my calls…”

I take a deep breath. “I _was_ working.”

“I literally went to the fucking coffee shop, Benji. I’m not stupid.”

“I guess you are because you didn’t notice the missing espresso machine. I was in Willacoochee getting it fixed. Just like I said.”

“Sarah was there,” he says.

“Yeah, I went with Victor,” I say.

He closes his eyes. “That kid again? What the hell is with you and him?”

“What are you talking about, Derek? He’s my friend and we work together.”

“You drug me to his birthday party to be yelled at by some elderly Mexican man. You stay late every time you close with him. Now you went on some overnight road trip together. Yeah, doesn’t sound like a friend to me.”

I rub my eyes in frustration. “Wow.” I sigh. “First of all, Victor’s grandfather isn’t Mexican. They’re from Colombia. Second of all, he _is_ my friend, and we usually end up talking while we’re closing. It’s nice to have someone that actually wants to talk to me and listen sometimes. Not that you’d know anything about that. And we went to get the machine fixed. It look longer than expected and Sarah told us to stay so we could get it back as soon as possible.”

“You know he’s straight right?” Derek asks incredulously. I can’t help the laugh I snort in response. “He has a girlfriend.” I hiss another laugh. “What’s funny?”

“Uh,” I say and then I sigh. “He told me I could tell you this, so I’m going to. He’s, uh, not straight. We were talking last night and he came out to me. He hasn’t told anyone else yet, but he trusted me with that because we’re **friends** ,” I emphasize.

“Girlfriend,” he says.

“Yeah. He was confused. He’s apparently talking to her today.”

He rolls his eyes. “Okay. So that makes this that much more complicated. You do realize that, right?”

I look at him in disbelief. “You do realize that every single one of your friends is gay, too? You don’t see me complaining. You left our **anniversary date** early to go to Ty’s fucking show on Friday. Wanna talk about that?”

“Ty has a boyfriend,” he says as if that means anything.

“Yeah, and Victor has a girlfriend and you still seem to think I’m cheating on you with him or something,” I say. He stares at me. “Which I’m not," I clarify.

“Get out of my car,” he says. “I’m done talking about this. Call me when you get yourself together. I don’t have time for this bullshit today.”

I stare at him with my mouth open. “ _You_ don’t have time for this? You started this.”

“Get out,” he says again.

“Okay, but I’m not going to call you.”

“What?”

“I said, okay. I’ll get out of your car, but I’m not going to call you. I’m not doing this anymore. All you ever do is fight with me and make me feel bad about myself. I’m sick of it. We’re done,” I say. Before he has a chance to respond, I open the door and get out, slamming it shut behind me. I walk back toward the house. Ignoring when I hear the car door open and him shouting after me.

“Benji, no, don’t be like this. I… I love you… please.”

I take a deep breath and open the front door. “You don’t,” I say looking at him. “I’m done.”

A few minutes later I’m sitting in front of my laptop at my desk in my room. I heard Derek’s car pull away as I closed my bedroom door. I open Facebook. Might as well get this over with, but the first post at the top of my newsfeed stops me in my tracks.

_Victor Salazar is single._

I sad react, because that seems most appropriate and then pull out my phone and text him. _I take it you told her._ He doesn’t respond right away so I look back at Facebook. I close my eyes. Maybe I should think about this more. But I don’t. I can’t. I can’t keep doing this, so I go to my own profile and change my relationship status to single, too.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victor POV.
> 
> Continuation of previous Victor chapters. Telling more people.

I’m halfway home when I get a text from Mia. I open it. It’s a screenshot of Facebook.

_Benji Campbell is single._

I text her back. _What the hell…_

_Your guess is as good as mine. Actually, probably better since you were with him all weekend. [shrug emoji] Just thought you’d want to know. Also, Lake is already interrogating me. She’s coming over, I don’t know how long I’ll be able to hold her off with the better off friends storyline._

I close my eyes and sigh. _Thank you for telling me about Benji. I’ll have to call him when I get home. As for Lake. You can tell her. Just make sure she’s not going to tell anyone or put it on that stupid blog._

_Are you sure?_

_Yeah. I’m going to tell Felix, too. It’s fine._

_[thumbs up emoji]_

I sigh and as I’m about to put my phone back in my pocket it vibrates again. My sister. _What the hell happened? You were going to Mia’s to apologize and now…what?_

_Don’t tell mom and dad, please._

_Too late._

_Thanks. It’s complicated, but we decided we’re better off friends. I’ll tell you why later, but that’s all mom and dad need to know, okay?_

_[thumbs up emoji] I’ll be waiting._

I’m about to put my phone away again, when it buzzes. I groan and pull it back out. Felix this time. _What the hell? Did she break up with you for missing the party?_

_No. I’m almost home. Come outside and we can talk about it._ No time like the present.

_Be right down._

I manage to actually get my phone into my pocket this time and I can see Felix outside the apartment building in the distance by the time it buzzes again. I let out another exasperated sigh and check it. Benji. _Are you okay? You haven’t responded…_

I snort a laugh. _I’m good. Yeah, I told her. I think I should be asking you if you’re okay at this point though. What happened with Derek?_

_Long story._

_I’ll call you later if you want?_

_Yeah. That’d be nice actually._

_I’m about to tell Felix. Mia is telling Lake. I need to tell my sister. And then I'll call you._

_That’s a lot, Vic. You don’t need to call me. I'll be fine._

_I will though. You listened to me last night. The least I can do is listen to you now._

_Thanks._

I shove my phone back into my pocket and sit on the wall next to Felix.

“So, what’s up?” he says as I sit down.

“First of all, we’re still friends. I’m not fucking up everyone else’s social circle. Promise.”

He chuckles. “I wasn’t worried about that. They don't actually like me anyway. What happened?”

"Lake likes you," I insist.

"When were not in public," he says with a sigh. I nod. "But, we're not talking about that. What happened with Mia?"

I take a deep breath. “I’m gay,” I say. And his eyes go wide.

“Twist.”

I chuckle. “I’ve thought I might be for a while, but I wasn’t totally sure, and… I really wanted to make things work with Mia, because… she’s awesome. But I, but I can’t. Because… I like guys.” I look up from my hands to meet Felix's eyes.

He gives me a weird exasperated look, but doesn’t say anything and instead he hugs me around the shoulders. I’m caught off-guard for a second, but I quickly hug him back. We break apart. “I, um, I really don’t know the perfect thing to say.” He’s smiling and I smile back. “But I’m really happy you told me. And this doesn’t change anything between us, obviously.”

“Actually, as… As far as perfect things to say go, that was pretty good.” He looks like he’s about to cry. “Felix, don’t cry,” I say, laughing and reaching out to pat his back.

“I’m not crying… allergies,” he insists, dabbing his eyes with his fingers. I chuckle, because he’s obviously lying. I pat his back. “Whew, so… How does it feel to get all this off your chest?”

“Kind of amazing,” I say and we both chuckle. “But, um, you were one of the easy ones.”

“Who else have you told? Who are you going to tell?”

“Mia obviously. And… I told Benji last night when we were staying in Willacoochee.”

He nods. “That makes sense. He was probably the easiest on the list.”

“Actually, not entirely, but, um, I’m going to go tell my sister in a minute,” I say. “But not my parents. Not yet. I am not ready for that yet.”

He nods. “I get that.”

“But, did you see Benji and Derek, too?"

“What?”

“On Facebook. Something happened. I’m going to call him later to talk about it all, but…”

“Wait, he and Derek broke up, too? They’ve been together for…”

“A year last Friday,” I supply.

“Shit. Not a good day in paradise.”

I chuckle. “Something like that. Uh, Mia actually told me some stuff about Derek earlier, so I… uh, well I’m going to talk to Benji first, obviously.”

“Yikes,” he says. “Wait… do you… do you like Benji?”

“Why does everyone think that?”

He glances around. “I didn’t want to say anything because, I mean, you you were supposed to be straight. You were dating Mia, but…”

“Am I really that obvious?”

He snorts a laugh and nods. “A little bit, yeah.”

I sigh and throw my head back. “Mia thinks he likes me, too, apparently,” I say as I look back to him.

“He definitely does,” Felix agrees.

“He has… had a boyfriend.”

“Past tense,” he says with a chuckle. And when I look at him, he winks. I roll my eyes. “You came out to him last night and now he suddenly breaks up with his boyfriend of a year. I don’t think it’s a coincidence. He looks at you…”

I hold my hand up and roll my eyes. “Stop. I can’t do this right now. I’m going inside.”

Felix laughs again and we both get up. He opens the door and holds it for me. “After you,” he says, gesturing. I roll my eyes but walk inside and start up the stairs.

I’m standing outside my door when Felix claps me on the back. “I know you’re not telling your parents the reason right now, but… do they know about Mia?”

I nod slowly. “I told Pilar not to tell them and she said ‘too late’, so yes.”

“Oh, uh, what’s the story everyone else is getting, so I can keep it up?”

I take a breath and nod. “Right. Uh, we just decided we’re better off friends. No hurt feelings.”

He raises an eyebrow. “Lake’s not going to buy that.”

I sigh. “Which is why I told Mia to tell her the truth as long as she won’t tell anyone or put it on that stupid blog,” I say. “Anyway, thanks for listening. I've gotta go deal with...” I gesture vaguely toward the door as I reach for the handle.

“No problem, buddy!” he says. He waves and then heads up the stairs.

I walk into the apartment and my parents are still on the sofa. I close my eyes and walk into the living room. “Hey,” I say quietly.

“Mijo, what happened? Your sister told us…”

“Um, I went over to Mia’s to apologize for last night and we got to talking and decided we’re better off friends,” I say with a shrug.

They both nod, but glance at each other. “Are you sure?” my mom asks. “She’s so…”

“I know. She’s great, Mami. We’re, uh, we’re still friends. We just decided the whole relationship thing wasn’t working out. It’s not a big deal.”

“It’s your first breakup, mi amor, of course, it’s a big deal.”

I sigh. “But it’s really not, Mami. I… I don’t really know what else to tell you. Mia’s awesome, but we’re not as good together as we thought we were.” I shrug. “I’m gonna go finish my homework,” I say as I turn for the hallway. I watch Pilar cross the hall from her room into mine and bite back a chuckle.

“Okay, Victor,” my mom says. “Well, we’re here if you want to talk about it.”

“Thanks, Mami,” I say with another sigh and I walk to my bedroom. Closing the door when I enter. Pilar is sitting on the chair at my desk with her legs crossed and staring at me. I collapse onto my bed and kick my shoes off.

“Spill,” she demands. “What actually happened?”

I close my eyes. “Pilar,” I say. “Can I breathe for two seconds first?”

“Oh, uh, yeah, sure.”

I chuckle and sigh as I flop backwards across my bed stretching. “It’s complicated,” I say finally as I sit back up. I can see on her face that she's waiting for more. “Um, we _are_ still friends though, so you don’t have to worry about that. I know you like Mia and don’t have a lot of friends here.”

“Good,” she says. "I'm supposed to borrow a pair of shoes from her for the dance."

“Um, wow. This is really weird. So, first of all. The only thing Mom and Dad need to know and the only thing most people need to or get to know is that we decided we’re better off friends and there’s no animosity at all, okay?”

“Got it,” she says. “But you're going to tell me the truth, right?”

I sigh. “I am. However, that _is_ the truth. There’s just a reason for it.”

She raises an eyebrow. “Okay…”

“Pilar, I’m gay,” I say. I watch her face. Her eyes go wider than I think I’ve ever seen them in all our lives. Her mouth drops open and her hand flies to it. “Yeah,” I confirm.

“Wow,” she says after a minute. “Um... Was not expecting that.”

I take a deep breath and nod. “I’ve been… questioning things for a while now. Since before we left Texas.” I say. “I, uh, thought Mia might be the exception to that, but she’s not and I realized that on Friday night. Um,” I say and she still staring at me. “Can you not stare at me like that? I’m still Victor. I am still your brother. Promise. Nothing’s changed.”

“Yeah, no, uh, right,” she says, closing her eyes. “Who… does anyone else? Have you told?”

I close my eyes and try not to laugh. “Have I told anyone else?” I confirm. She nods. “Uh, Mia, obviously. Um, Felix just a minute ago downstairs. Uh, Benji… last night. Mia’s telling Lake because Lake wasn’t going to believe the half-truth everyone else is getting.” I shrug.

“Wow,” she says. “Are you… are you going to tell everyone else? Mom and Dad?”

“Eventually,” I say. “But right now. I’m just trying to figure everything out. I’m sort of worried about telling Mom and Dad to be fair.”

She nods. “I would be, too. That’s going to be one awkward conversation. They _really_ liked Mia.”

“Yeah. It really is. They did. I think they're already angry, so... I wanna give that some time before springing the rest of this on them.”

“I’ll be with you when you tell them if you want? Would that help?”

I smile at her. “Yeah. I think it would, actually. Thanks.”

“No problem,” she says. “Uh, do you… do you want a hug?”

I raise my eyebrows at her. “Are you sure?”

She nods and I nod too. We both get to our feet and I’m hugging my little sister for the first time in probably 3 years. Pilar doesn’t usually _do_ emotion. Not like this.

“I still love you,” she says when we break apart. “Just don’t tell anyone I said that."

I chuckle. “Your secret’s safe with me.”

“Thanks,” she says and then she walks back across the hall to her own room. I close the door again when she leaves. I sit down at my desk and open my laptop. I go to Instagram. I have a new DM… from Simon of course.

> _Hey Victor, That’s amazing! I’m so proud of you. Saying it for the first time does sort of feel like you’ve lifted some sort of huge weight off, doesn’t it? I remember when I told my parents and sister on Christmas morning. Not in the best of circumstances, but I remember telling them and it was like I could finally breathe. My mom actually told me, “you can exhale now” and it was the truest thing anyone’s ever said. Did you talk to Mia? How’d she take it? Let me know, okay? Love, Simon._

I stare at the message and read it a couple more times. He’s not kidding. I feel lighter than I’ve felt in years right now. I’m still running on some sort of weird coming out high.

> _Simon, you’re so right. I feel like I’m riding some kind of crazy high right now. What do you mean it wasn’t the best circumstances? I did tell Mia and she took it really well. She was just glad I told her before this went on for too long. We’re still friends. Um, I told Felix, too, and my sister. Not my parents yet. Baby steps, right? But, right after Mia and I changed our Facebook relationship status, which I still haven’t looked at the comments on because... I’m scared, I guess. But Benji changed his, too. I guess he and Derek broke up? I texted him to ask about it and he said it was a long story, so I’m actually about to call him. I figure if he listened to me flounder about being gay last night, the least I can do is listen to him about this, right? Anyway, so far so good. I’ll keep you updated. – Victor_

I close my laptop and flop onto my bed with my phone. I press send on Benji’s number. He answers on the first ring. “Hey,” he says and he actually sounds happy which surprises me, so it takes me a second to respond.

“Hey yourself,” I say, chuckling. “So, what happened?”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Benji's POV
> 
> Victor and Benji discuss their respective days and conversations.

I’m staring at my phone. Trying to keep up with the responses on Facebook and the texts from my friends. Lucy’s is the funniest so far.

_Fucking finally_. she texted and she love reacted to the Facebook post.

_You really hate him, don’t you?_

_He treated you like shit, Benji. I’ve been telling you that for months. So what finally did it?_

_Long story._

_I’ve got all day._

I sigh. _Did I tell you what happened Friday?_

_Your anniversary?_

_Yep. I made us dinner at the coffee shop after we closed. It was really special. I was trying to recreate our first date and he would not stop talking about how he wanted to go to Ty’s show. How he thought anniversaries were heteronormative rom-com bullshit._

_Jesus Christ. He’s an asshole._

_Eventually I told him to go and that I’d meet him there. I never did and then I ignored his calls all weekend while I was out in Willacoochee getting that stupid espresso machine fixed again. He came over when I got home. We didn’t even get out of the driveway. I just couldn’t take it anymore._

_I’m proud of you._

_Thanks._

I go back to checking Facebook until my phone vibrates with a call. It’s Victor, just like he promised. I answer immediately, not even caring that it probably makes me look desperate. “Hey,” I say. And I’m smiling, because it’s him and because he actually called me even though he’s going through a lot of coming out bullshit today and a break up of his own. He still called.

“Hey yourself,” he says, and I think he might be smiling, too. “So, what happened?”

I sigh. “First tell me what happened with Mia… and Felix… and your sister? You’ve had a busy day.”

He chuckles. “Well... Okay. I went over to Mia’s… and I told her everything. She also told me that apparently Andrew was at that thing last night and tried to kiss her.”

“Whoa,” I say before I can stop myself.

“Yeah. Um, they apparently briefly dated last fall or something. She didn’t go into specifics.”

“Weird. He's kind of an asshole. Doesn't seem her type.”

“Yeah. Uh, then we did the Facebook thing. Which… were you just staring at your phone or what? How did you see that so fast?”

I chuckle. “Uh, I was actually opening Facebook to do the same thing and your post was right at the top.” I shrug. “Sorry. That was probably a little creepy.”

He’s laughing, so maybe not. “It was just funny. I got the notification that you sad reacted and then your text and it made me laugh. Mia was looking at me like I was nuts. Um, anyway, that's really all that happened with Mia.”

“Felix and your sister?” I prompt.

“Right, uh, Mia texted me when I was only halfway there because she saw your post and ‘thought I’d want to know’ were her words,” he says.

“Why?” _Why would she think he’d care about that?_

I can hear him taking a big breath and it sounds like he might be nervous. "I guess because I’d just been with you all weekend? I don’t know,” he says, but that doesn’t sound like the whole truth. I decide not to ask. “Anyway. She said Lake was already interrogating her and on her way over. So, I told her she could tell Lake the truth, because I knew that was the only way Lake would let it go.”

“Isn’t Lake obsessed with Creek Secrets? Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“She wouldn’t do that. Mia wouldn’t let her.”

“Okay,” I say. But I’m not sure I agree.

“Then my sister texted me because she saw my Facebook. She’d apparently already told my parents.”

“Jesus,” I say. That’s probably not ideal.

“It is what it is. They were going to find out either way.”

“Did you tell them?”

“Uh, just that Mia and I are still friends and we decided the relationship wasn’t for us, which isn’t a lie. It’s just not the whole truth. That’s what we’re telling everyone, by the way.”

“Okay,” I agree. “So, Felix?”

“Right, um, Felix texted me after my sister so I told him to come outside because I was almost home and I told him everything, too. Uh, I went upstairs, danced around my parents and then my sister was waiting in my room so I told her everything. She said she’ll be with me when I tell our parents, when I’m ready for that.”

“That’s really sweet of her.”

“Yeah, and _very_ unlike her. I’m actually concerned she might be possessed by some benevolent spirit or something,” he says. I can’t help but chuckle at that. “I also messaged Simon because he responded and then I called you. So… are you going to tell me what happened with Derek?”

“Right,” I say and then I sigh. “It’s complicated.”

“That’s okay,” he says. “I’ve got all night.”

I smile. “Um, well, things have been off with us for a while now. I just didn’t want to admit it. He was my first boyfriend, so I was convinced I’d never do any better or whatever.”

“What happened?”

“Um, well, he just makes me anxious all the time. He makes me feel bad about myself. About the things I like to do. About being a romantic. Take Friday for example.”

“Wait… what _did_ happen Friday. You said it went fine, but… I got the impression that wasn't true.”

I shrug and sigh. “He, uh, he left because he wanted to go to his friends’ show. I told him that I’d meet him there, but never did.”

“Oh my God. I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you had somewhere to be.”

I snort a laugh. He would blame himself for this. “It’s not your fault. Do you not recall that I was already working on latte art when you got there? I was never planning to meet him.”

“Why?”

“I didn’t want to go to the show,” I admit. “I don’t really like the music his friends play, but I was also really pissed and didn't want to deal him. I told him I was trying to do something special. That maybe we could skip the show this time because it was our anniversary.” I close my eyes. “He didn’t even remember. He said anniversaries were ‘heteronormative rom-com bullshit’ if I remember correctly.”

“What the fuck?”

I chuckle. “Yeah. He does that a lot. He hates anything that a straight person might like. He says that’s the best part of being gay. He doesn’t have to pretend to like ‘rom-com bullshit’. It’s dumb. He's dumb. Um. He tried to apologize, but I could tell he didn’t actually care and he kept asking if we could leave, so I just told him to go. And then I ignored his calls all weekend because of it… and because I was with you and I didn’t want to make you bare witness to that mess of a conversation.”

“I’m sorry,” he says.

“Why?”

“I don’t know. I just feel bad. I dumped all my shit on you last night when you were dealing with this. I didn’t even know…”

“You’re right. You didn’t know. It’s fine, Vic. I’m… I’m really glad you trusted me with that, by the way. It’s nice to feel like someone actually wants to talk to me and listen to me when I talk. You _are_ really easy to talk to.”

“Thanks. I guess… I don’t know. Are you okay? What happened today?”

“I’m fine,” I say.

“Are you?”

“I actually am, yeah. I… uh, I broke up with him.”

“I sort of figured after everything you just told me, but that doesn’t mean…”

“I know, but I am honestly fine. He came over when I got home. I went out and sat in the car with him for a little while because my parents were home and I knew he was going to make a scene. We fought. He said some really hurtful shit. Accused me of cheating of him. Oh,” I realize. “I did tell him, by the way. I hope that’s still okay? He was saying some really stupid shit about you and I just… I thought it would shut him up. It didn’t, but I thought it might.”

“Wait, why was he talking about me?”

“Uh,” _Shit. Why did I say that?_ “Uh, I don’t really know how to explain it.”

He snorts a little exhale. “Would it help if I told you that multiple people I came out to today accused me of liking you? Apparently, it’s a theme.”

“Really?” I ask. _All of his friends think he likes me? Does he?_

  
“Yeah,” he says. “It was weird. Anyway. What did Derek say about me?”

“Um, kind of the same actually.”

“Yikes.”

I chuckle. “Um, yeah, I don’t know how many times I can explain to him that we’re friends and work together, but… Um, anyway. He said some stupid shit and I guess he must have thought I liked you because he started saying ‘you know he’s straight right’ and ‘he has a girlfriend’. I might have laughed so he asked what was funny and I told him.”

“Okay. I told you you could tell him,” he says. “It’s fine.”

“Is it? I feel like that was sort of a weird circumstance.”

“It’s fine, Benji. I really don’t mind.”

I sigh. “Okay,” I say, even though I don’t believe him. “I pointed out that he left our anniversary date to go hang out with his friend who is also gay. He said his friend has a boyfriend. I pointed out that he was still accusing me of things with you even though you had a girlfriend. He told me to get out of the car and call him when I got myself together, I believe were his words.”

“The hell…”

“Yeah. I don’t know. Anyway, I got out and told him I wasn’t going to call him. I told him that I was done. He tried to fight, but I came inside and… yeah.”

“I’m sorry,” he says again.

“What? Why?”

“I don’t know… maybe if we hadn’t…”

“Victor, stop. Just, no.”

“But…”

“Vic, please. Don’t do this. This isn’t your fault. He was being an asshole. He usually is, honestly. You should have heard what my friend Lucy said when she saw. She’s been trying to tell me to dump him for months.”

“Wait, really? But you guys always seemed so great together…”

I can’t help but chuckle. “You didn’t see us together that often,” I say. “What… battle of the bands and your birthday? We were in public. He still argued with me at your party, if you don’t remember.”

“Which was my fault, too.”

“It was not.”

“It was. He had a problem with the way I introduced you guys. I should have just bit the bullet,” he says. “I’m sorry.”

“Victor, please stop apologizing. After we heard what your grandfather said, we understood. Even he understood. And now that I know about… about you, I understand even more. This isn’t your fault. It’s not anyone’s fault except Derek’s. He’s the one that was an asshole. I’m… I’m not even upset about it,” I admit.

“You’re not?”

“No,” I say. I sigh. “I wanna be with someone who doesn’t make me feel anxious all the time. You know, someone who makes me feel like I can just be myself, and that’s enough.” He doesn’t say anything. “I couldn’t keep doing that.”

“I get it,” He agrees. “I felt like I couldn’t be myself with Mia. For obvious reasons, but also... because she’s this… this perfect person… not really, but she lives in this huge mansion and has all this money. And I… don’t,” he says. “I love Mia, I do, but we’re from different worlds and sometimes it was so hard to pretend all the time. Not just about the gay thing, but about the life things, too.”

“Yeah,” I say. “Uh, anyway. I… I actually had fun this weekend… with you…”

I hear him giggle under his breath and it feels like I can’t breathe. “I, uh, had fun with you, too. It was… like you said… I felt like I could just be myself. I, uh, always feel like that around you. It’s really nice. It’s easy and that’s really refreshing after most of my life.”

“Definitely.”

“Um,” he says. “I, uh, have homework that needs done. So, I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Yeah. Yeah. Me, too, actually,” I say. “You work tomorrow?”

“Yeah. I think we close together, don’t we?”

“Uh, yeah. I think we do.”

“Cool, I’ll see you then.”

“Well, you’ll probably see me at school first,” I say.

He chuckles. “True. Um, bye, Benji.”

I can’t help the smile that spreads over my face. “Goodbye,” I say and then the call ends and everything is a little less terrible.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victor's POV
> 
> Attempting homework and updating Felix.

I try to work on my essay for English and the problem set for Algebra, but neither of them go very well. My mom calls me for dinner after I finally finish one problem, so I go to the kitchen. My parents have this weird tension between them that I don’t quite understand, but I try to let it go. After dinner, I try to finish my homework, but my brain just won’t stop wandering back to the fact that Benji is now an actual possibility.

Eventually I give up on homework and flop backwards onto my bed. Tucking my hands behind my head as I stare at the ceiling. I get this overwhelming urge to call Benji again, but I stop myself. I flip to Facebook instead and scroll through his newsfeed. He’s already changed his profile picture. This one is of just him, smiling like a goof. I wonder if there’s a story behind it. I click to enlarge it. There’s no caption, but I realize after a minute he’s wearing the shirt he bought in Willacoochee. This was taken today.

He’s smiling. He’s actually smiling. Was this taken before he broke up with Derek? Or is he actually fine? My mind is swirling with questions, but I push them away and go back to his feed. He doesn’t post much, which isn’t shocking. I scroll so much that I get to his birthday last year. Before I even knew him. I’m reading the posts from his friends. There’s one from a Lucy that I assume has to be the one he was talking about earlier and it includes a selfie of them together. And it makes me smile, because he looks so happy in the picture.

I decide I’ve scrolled far enough, because knowing me I’ll accidentally click like on something from five years ago and out myself as a total creep. I close out of Facebook and open Instagram. For once, I’m not just checking my DMs with Simon. I scroll my feed instead. Simon and Bram posted another adorable picture together which I like before continuing on. Then I come across the selfie that’s now Benji’s Facebook profile picture and like it without even reading the caption first, because _damn_. And then I read the caption.

> _Got this shirt at a middle-of-nowhere thrift store yesterday and I think it might be my new favorite. It already has so many good memories attached, even if today was a really weird day. [heart emoji]_

My heart is pounding in my chest. What does that even mean? Good memories? What good memories? Does he think the thrift store in Willacoochee was good memories? Because I mean, I know I do, but what? My brain cannot wrap itself around this. At this point, I’m so far gone I just click through to Benji’s profile and start scrolling. I literally scroll the entire history of Benji’s Instagram back to 2014 when he truly and absolutely looked like a fetus. But he was a cute fetus.

The walkie-talkie on my nightstand crackles. “Felix to Victor. Are you there? Over.” I sort of jump and that makes me accidentally double click a really old selfie on Benji’s Instagram feed. _Shit._ I quickly undo it and hope he wasn’t looking at his phone to see that notification. I groan as I pick up the walkie-talkie.

“I’m here. Over.” I say.

The fear and panic must be evident in my voice because he immediately asks, “Are you okay? Over.”

“Fine. Fine. You just startled me. What’s up?” I say and then I tack on. “Over.”

“Just checking in,” he says. “How’d it go with your family? Did you talk to Benji? Over.”

“Why don’t you just come down here. This feels weird. Over.”

“On my way, bestie! Over.”

I groan and get out of bed. I check my hair in the mirror and pocket my phone as I walk down the hall.

“Hey, flaco, finish that homework?” my dad asks.

“Uh, almost, Felix is actually coming down so we can finish a project. If that’s okay.”

“Oh, yeah, of course,” he says. And then Felix is knocking on the door, so I open it.

“Hey, bestie!” he says, way too chipper.

“Hey, let’s go to my room, I guess?”

He raises an eyebrow, but shrugs and follows me down the hall. I shut the door once we’re in my room. “As far as my parents know we’re working on a homework project, got it? So be quiet.”

He chuckles and nods. “You got it. So… what happened?”

I groan and tell him to sit down. He sits in my desk chair and I sit on the side of the bed. “So… I told my parents that we decided the relationship thing wasn’t for us. That we’re still friends and everything’s fine. I think they bought it. They at least bought it enough to let it go.”

“That’s good. Buy yourself some time before _that_ whole thing.”

I nod. “Yeah, exactly. Anyway. I told Pilar everything I told you. She…” I swallow and think before saying, “You can’t tell anyone this, I was sworn to secrecy.”

He holds his right hand up. “On my honor!”

I chuckle. “She was… really sweet. It was very unlike her. I’m actually a little concerned she might be possessed. She _hugged_ me and said she’ll be with me when I tell my parents.” His eyes go wide. “Yeah. It’s _weird_ ,” I tell him.

“So, did you talk to Benji?”

“I did.”

“What happened?”

“He broke up with Derek.”

“I told you.”

“It’s not about me, Felix. Um, apparently on Friday… their anniversary, Derek was being a pretty horrible person and said a lot of stupid shit. He, uh, actually left their anniversary date to go to his friends’ show.”

“Yikes. That’s like… really shitty.”

I nod. “Exactly and it sounds like that wasn’t the first time something like that happened. He apparently hates anything he calls… what was it… heteronormative… rom-com bullshit. I think that was the phrase Benji used.” I pause and take a deep breath. “Um, apparently Derek agrees with you and Mia that I’m obvious as fuck, because he apparently accused Benji of cheating on him…”

“With you specifically?”

I nod. “Sounded like it.”

“Yikes! But a good yikes, because that means he also thinks Benji likes you.”

I roll my eyes. “Anyway, apparently they’ve been fighting for months and this was inevitable. I mean the fact that Benji didn’t answer his calls all weekend definitely didn’t help matters, but here we are.”

“So, what you’re telling me is that both you and Benji are now single…”

“Felix, no. Stop right there. We are not having this conversation.”

“Come on, man. You totally like him and he totally likes you, too, so why the hell not?”

I groan. “Because I think Mia might get the wrong impression. I don’t think she believed me that nothing happened between us this weekend, to be completely honest. I don’t want to hurt her any more than I already have.”

“So, what your saying is… not right now.”

“Oh my God, Felix. Please stop.”

My phone buzzes. I look at the screen. It’s a text from Benji. I close my eyes and hope to God it’s not about what I think it will be.

“What’s with the face?” Felix asks.

“Uh…” I say. “Hold on, let me find out if it’s warranted, first.” I click to open the text and yup. My face must immediately betray me because Felix is cackling.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” he says. “What happened?”

“So, when you walkie-talkied… I was being a total creep and scrolling through Benji’s Instagram. I was… at basically the beginning of time. When you walkied… I jumped.”

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry,” he says when he realizes what happened. “What did he say?”

“He took a fucking screenshot and sent it to me.” Felix literally falls out the chair laughing and a second later the door flies open and my mom looks concerned.

“What is going on in here?”

“Sorry, Mrs. Salazar. It’s fine,” Felix says, through his fading laughter. “I, uh, fell out of the chair. Victor said something really funny.”

“Are you okay, Felix?” she asks.

He nods as he climbs back into the chair. “Fine. Sorry for the scare!”

She shakes her head. “Okay. How’s the project coming?” she asks and I can see her staring at the phone in my hand.

“Uh, almost done,” I say.

She nods, but I know she doesn’t believe me. She does however leave and close the door behind herself. I sigh in relief when the door’s closed and Felix chuckles. “Sorry,” he says. “Okay, did he say anything, or?”

I clear my throat. “‘I’m gonna pretend I didn’t see this.’ and then a fucking winking emoji.”

“That’s glorious,” Felix says. “Absolutely amazing.”

“You’re the actual worst,” I tell him as I type a reply to Benji and then slide my phone back into my pocket.

“So, what did you reply?”

“I just said ‘please’ with the embarrassed emoji.” Felix chuckles. “I literally have to work with him tomorrow and we _close_ which means we’re going to be there alone for at least half an hour. I’m going to actually die of embarrassment thanks to you.”

“Maybe he’ll actually pretend he didn’t see it?”

“Not likely. He took a fucking screenshot.”

Felix laughs. “Okay, true.”

“So what’s the deal with you and Lake?”

“What d’you mean?”

“I mean I saw you swallow each other’s faces on Mia’s couch last Friday. What’s the deal?”

“Uh… nothing. Um, she doesn’t want anyone to know,” he says shrugging.

“But you’ve hooked up again?”

“I wouldn’t exactly call it hooking up,” he says with a scrunched face. I raise an eyebrow. “We’ve kissed,” he says. “Multiple times.”

I laugh. “Alright, buddy. Whatever you say. Um, I should _actually_ finish my homework.”

He nods. “Yeah, alright, see you tomorrow morning for breakfast?”

I chuckle. “You know you don’t live here, right?”

He gives me a confused look. “But I’m the third Salazar kid.”

“Adrian is the third Salazar kid, Felix.”

“Right. Why do I always forget that?”

I shake my head and we get up and I walk him to the door.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victor's POV

When I get to the locker room before gym the next morning, Andrew, Kieran, and Teddy are already there. “Salazar!” Andrew says. “What’s the story with you and Mia?”

I roll my eyes. “We broke up,” I say as I pull my gym clothes out of the locker.

“I got that much from Facebook, dude,” he says. “Why?”

I close my eyes. “We decided that we’re better off friends,” I tell him. “Mutual and amicable; all good,” I say.

He raises and eyebrow and shakes his head a little but goes back to his own locker. A minute later he turns to me again. “What happened to you on Saturday night?”

“Right. I heard you were there,” I say, looking at him. “I also heard you… what was it… made Mia a grilled cheese… and… there was something else… I don’t quite remember,” I say giving him a pointed look.

“Grilled cheese is her favorite and the food at those things is always terrible,” he says, shrugging. I know he knows that I know about the kiss.

“What’s he talking about?” Kieran asks stupidly.

“No idea,” Andrew lies. He gives me a pointed look. I actually love watching Andrew squirm like this and I might laugh under my breath.

After class, when we’re all changing back to our regular clothes, he tries again. “But, for real, where were you? You missed a brilliant game of daughter or trophy wife.” I raise an eyebrow. “Guess you’ll never know now.”

I close my eyes. “I could just ask Mia what the hell you’re on about. She’d tell me,” I say.

“She’s still speaking to you?” he asks. He sounds upset about that.

“Uh, yeah. I told you. We’re still friends.”

He makes a face I don’t quite understand. “So, where were you? You didn’t answer the question,” he says as he pulls his t-shirt on.

“Willacoochee,” I say with an exasperated sigh.

“What? Why?”

“Work. The espresso machine broke, so Benji and I had to go get it fixed. It took longer than expected so we didn’t get back until yesterday lunch time.”

He nods and turns back to his locker. I honestly don’t care if he believes me. I’m just over this conversation, so I quickly finish tying my shoes and grab my backpack. Just my luck, I nearly run into someone as I turn the corner away from the gym. “Sorry,” I mumble without looking up.

There’s a chuckle. “You’re good. Or well, are you?”

My eyes go wide as I realize who it is. I almost laugh in relief. “Oh! Hey, Benji. Yeah, no, I’m great,” I say, shaking my head. He raises an eyebrow at me. “Seriously. I’m good.”

He chuckles. “Well, judging by the fact that you were practically running away from the locker room and nearly ran me over, I don’t believe that. Something happen?”

“Andrew being a dick per usual,” I say, shrugging. “Um, I should get to class,” I say and then I start walking away. I hear him huff a sigh and I can feel his eyes boring holes into my back, but I ignore it and head for my next class.

When I get to health, Felix is mercilessly flirting with Lake before the bell and it takes everything in me not to laugh. As the bell rings, Ms. Thomas comes into the room holding a cup of coffee. “Shut it! I am in a terrible mood. My boyfriend Omar dumped me.”

Andrew looks at her and says, “Well, he’s making a huge mistake, Ms. Thomas. You’re a catch.” I try not to laugh and can hear Mia doing the same behind me.

“Oh, thank you, Andrew. That’s very inappropriate coming from a 16-year-old boy, but you know what? I’ll take the win,” she says. “Okay, textbooks! Page 33,” she practically shouts even though the classroom is tiny. “‘Self-esteem and depression.’”

I hear Mia typing a text behind me and then Andrew’s phone vibrates. I turn to raise an eyebrow at her. She shakes her head. He types a response and her phone buzzes. She rolls her eyes and goes back to her textbook. Felix is turned around smirking and winking at Lake and I almost laugh. Mia’s phone buzzes and Lake looks panicked as her phone buzzes. I see Andrew texting under his desk and then Mia’s phone buzzes again. Followed by Andrew’s. Then a second later. Mia’s, Lake’s, and Andrew’s all buzz and that’s enough for Ms. Thomas to finally notice.

“Huh. Congratulations. Lake. Mia. Felix. Andrew. You’ve all earned yourselves Saturday detention for texting in class! Told you I was in one of my terrible moods.”

Considering that was my entire friend group, I’m kind of glad I didn’t get involved. I’ll have to find out what it was about at lunch. The rest of that class and the next two classes seem to drag by, because now I’m actually curious what was happening. I manage to catch Mia as we’re walking into the cafeteria. “What _were_ you guys texting about in Health?” I ask as I fall into step next to her.

She laughs. “Uh, I was making fun of Andrew for hitting on Ms. Thomas,” she says. “He asked me if I was still mad about Saturday. Lake sent me a text that was meant for someone else, which I’m _really_ curious about myself.”

“What did it say?”

“Uh, there were emojis involved, but it definitely seemed like she was trying to get someone to meet her to hook up between classes.” I sort of freeze and try not to laugh. “Do you know something I don’t?” she asks.

“Um, nope. No idea.”

She raises an eyebrow and clearly doesn’t believe me, but she shakes her head and lets it go. “Then Andrew asked if I was ignoring him and I said I was trying to and then Felix texted all three of us saying he felt left out.”

I laugh. “God damn it, Felix. Why can you not just wait and ask like I did?”

She laughs, too. “Seriously. Now I have Saturday detention with those losers.”

I laugh. “You don’t actually think they’re losers,” I say.

“I don’t, but,” she says, rolling her eyes.

We get outside and sit at our usual table. I realize after a minute that everyone at this table actually knows the real reason Mia and I broke up and it makes me a lot more comfortable, until Lake opens he mouth. “So,” she says, glancing around. “Mia tells me you like Benji,” she continues quietly in my direction.

“Oh my God! Lake! Not here.”

She rolls her eyes. “But you do, right?”

I close my eyes. “Not. Here.”

“That’s a yes,” she says. “Does anyone know why he broke up with Derek yesterday?”

I roll my eyes. “Can you please not do this right now?” I ask, giving her an exasperated look, but Felix ever a puppy dog after Lake’s attention ruins it.

“I do!”

I groan and roll my head back. “Guys! Come on!”

They ignore me. “So?” Lake prompts.

“Uh, from what this one tells me,” he says, nodding in my direction. “Derek is a major asshole and had it coming for awhile now.”

“So. It has nothing to do with the fact that Victor’s now single and ready to mingle?

I groan. “Lake. Please stop,” I beg.

“Are we sure?” she asks, tilting her head.

“I’m going to get a water,” I say, getting to my feet. “When I get back, we’re not talking about this anymore.”

Pilar’s eyes follow me as I walk toward the vending machines and then I stop paying attention, just wishing this period would end. I fight with the vending machine for a minute and then as I’m standing up with my bottle of water, there’s someone much closer than I’m anticipating and it makes me jump.

He laughs. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

I snort a laugh. “Yeah, hi again, did you want something?”

“Uh, yeah. Just checking in. You seemed really uncomfortable at your lunch table. Is everything okay?”

“Why were you watching me?”

“Uh…”

“Nevermind. Everything’s fine. Lake’s just being… Lake.” He raises an eyebrow and I sigh. “Everyone at that table knows the real reason Mia and I broke up,” I say quietly as I start walking back that direction with him next to me. “And Lake apparently wants to talk about it. I do not and she will not give up.”

“Oh,” he says. “You can come sit with me if you want,” he offers.

I laugh a little and seriously think about it for a second before realizing that would make everything that much worse. “That’s okay,” I say. “I’ll be fine. I’m gonna ask Mia to say something to Lake later. It’s fine.”

“Are you sure? We have plenty of room. It’s just me and Lucy today.”

“I’m sure. Thanks though. I’ll see you at work.”

He nods. “Okay. Yeah. See you then.”

When I get back to the table, Lake is staring at me. “Mia is going to murder me for this, because for whatever reason she’s still defending your honor, but _what the heck was that?_ ”

“Lake. He said to stop. Please stop,” Mia says and I could kiss her. Not really, but still.

“Victor,” she says. “What just happened?”

I close my eyes and sigh. “Lake, come on. You’re making him uncomfortable. Let it go,” Mia says. I open my eyes and mouth _thank you_ to her and she smiles and nods.

“Sorry. No can do. What happened?” Lake says and I groan.

“Lake, please?” Pilar says. “Leave my brother alone. He doesn’t wanna talk about it.”

I open my eyes and gawk at her for a second. Who is this and what has she done with my sister? Lake just rolls her eyes and stares at me expectantly.

“He noticed that I looked really uncomfortable over here and was just making sure everything was okay. Can we drop this now?” I say.

“Told you he likes you,” Mia says.

“Not you, too!” I groan.

“Sorry,” she says. “But I did.”

I roll my eyes. “It doesn’t matter,” I say.

“Why not?” Lake asks. “You clearly like him. He clearly likes you. What’s the problem?”

I sigh. “The problem is. We both literally just broke up with people yesterday. We also work together and he’s the assistant manager, so I’m pretty sure that’s an HR violation.”

Lake rolls her eyes. “HR. Schmach-R. What Brasstown doesn’t know can’t hurt them.”

“We literally work together _every day_.”

“All the better!” she says.

“Lake, can you please not with this? Not right now. Not here. Anyway, no one except you guys and him even knows about the whole thing, so…”

Lake rolls her eyes, but finally admits defeat and changes the subject. I sigh with relief.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Benji's POV
> 
> Lucy figures Benji out and they discuss it over lunch.

I actually kind of get the impression that the thought of sitting with me and Lucy makes Victor more uncomfortable than whatever Lake was torturing him with. I sigh as I watch him return to the table with his friends and shake my head. I walk back over to Lucy and she’s giving me a look I don’t understand. “What?” I ask as I sit back down.

“What was that?”

“What d’you mean?”

“Well. First of all, you said you were going to get a drink from the vending machine and you came back empty handed.” _Shit_. “Second of all, who was that boy?”

I groan and continue watching Victor and his friends across the courtyard. He looks uncomfortable again. I really want to know what Lake is torturing him about and I really want her to stop.

“Benji.” Lucy demands.

I close my eyes. “Uh, his name is Victor.”

“Wait, he’s the one dating Mia Brooks right? Don’t you work with him?

“He was and I do.”

“Was?”

“Wow, do you not keep up on all the hot Creekwood gossip anymore?”

“Did they break up?” she asks and then she follows my eyes to Victor’s table. “They’re still sitting together…”

“They’re still friends. It’s a long story.”

She looks at her watch. “We have 26 minutes left of lunch, so let’s hear it.”

“Lucy… I… I can’t tell you. I’m sorry, but I can’t.” She gives me a look and I think she might understand for a second. “I’m sorry.”

“So why were you talking to him? What happened to getting a drink?”

“I was never getting a drink. That was an excuse.” She raises an eyebrow and I roll my eyes. “Do you not see how uncomfortable he looks?”

She follows my gaze again and tilts her head. “Yeah, I guess? Why's that matter? He’s at a table with his apparently ex-girlfriend, most people would be uncomfortable.”

“It’s not Mia that’s the problem. It’s her best friend. But I was just making sure he was okay. I, uh, actually asked if he wanted to come sit with us instead, but… he said no, so,” I say and then I shrug and look at Lucy. She has this look on her face that tells me she’s pieced the entire thing together and I groan.

“So, he’s gay,” she says matter-of-factly.

I close my eyes. “Yes. But no one knows. Well, I know and that table of people knows and oddly, Simon Spier knows, but that’s a whole thing.”

“So, you like him,” she says. I look at her. She clearly knows. I can’t argue, so I nod. “So, if he broke up with Mia, why don’t you just ask him out?”

“Because he’s not out and I don’t think he’s ready to be and I don’t want to be with someone I can’t actually _be with_ ,” I tell her.

“That’s fair. Have you talked to him about this?”

“No,” I say, rolling my eyes. She groans. “Shut up. I… he just told me on Saturday night. It’s still new. The rest of them didn’t know until yesterday… other than Simon.”

“But he likes you, too?” she asks. This time it is a question. A question I don’t have an answer for, so I sigh and look at her.

“I… think so.” She raises an eyebrow. “Uh… yesterday. Even though he’d just come out to his entire friend group… and his sister… he still called to check on me after he found out Derek and I broke up. Which _Mia_ apparently told him about because she thought he'd want to know. He did not elaborate, so I have no idea what that means.”

“Oh my God, Benji. He’s perfect and his friend's clearly think he likes you.”

I groan. “And then… uh, he accidentally liked a picture on my Instagram from literally 8th grade,” I tell her.

“So, he calls to check on you even though he’s dealing with his own shit. _And_ he was stalking your Instagram. So, why are you not asking him out again?”

I groan. “He’s not out,” I say again.

She rolls her eyes. “But you clearly like him.”

I sigh. “Yeah. I do.”

“So, why not try? He sounds a lot better than you-know-who.”

I laugh. “Come on. Derek wasn’t that bad.”

She rolls her eyes. “Honey, I know he was your first boyfriend, but you can do so much better than that asshole. He didn’t treat you right and you know it. And…” she pauses, clearly searching for words. “This kid already seems a lot better from the very little I know. So why not try? You deserve to be happy, Benji.”

I close my eyes and sigh, still watching Victor. It looks like Lake must have moved on, because he’s smiling again and that makes me happy. _He_ deserves to be happy. I look at Lucy. “You’re right, but… like I said… I don’t want to date someone I can’t be with publicly and… I don’t think he’s going to be ready to come out for a while.”

“Why not? You said he told all of his friends yesterday?”

I roll my head. “He did. But… his parents are the problem.”

“Oh,” she says. “Wait, it was _his_ birthday party you and Derek went to, wasn’t it?”

I nod. “Yeah. So you understand why that might not be the safest plan.”

She nods. “Okay. I concede that. But there’s plenty of people that are out at school and whatever, but not at home,” she says.

“I don’t want to give him another thing to hide.”

“So, you think he’d say yes.”

I sigh. “Yeah, but I don’t know,” I say and then I shrug. “Can we not talk about this?”

“Fine. Fine. Uh, what are you going to do about the band?”

“What d’you mean?”

“I mean… you and Derek broke up… are you still going to be in a band with him, or?”

I groan. “Jesus, can we go back to talking about Victor?”

She laughs. “Have you even thought about it yet?”

“No,” I admit. “Well, I’ve _thought_ about it, but there hasn’t been a discussion.”

She nods. “What do you want to do?”

“I don’t know,” I admit. “I really like being in a band, but I also don’t want to deal with Derek’s bullshit and they never want to do the songs I like.”

She nods. “I’ve heard you do solo stuff before. You’re really good. You could… I don’t know… do that for a while?”

“I was thinking about that,” I say, shrugging. “I might. I need to talk to the rest of the band first though. This isn’t just about me and Derek. There are two other people involved and,” I say, shrugging. “I don’t know. I’m the lead singer, so it would be kind of shit of me to walk away from them just because Derek’s an ass.”

“Kick Derek out instead?”

I laugh. “I don’t think they’d go for that. He’s the only reason they let me in, remember?”

She groans. “Fine, but you’re more important than him.”

I shake my head. “Okay, well we’ll figure it out, okay?”

“Okay,” she says smiling. “Can we actually go back to talking about Victor?” she asks, looking at him again. “He’s _really_ cute and that coming from someone that doesn’t even _like_ boys.”

I roll my eyes at her. “He is,” I agree.

“So, you definitely liked him before the break up, because there’s no way you’d be this far gone in less than 24 hours,” she concludes. I groan. “Come on, Benji, talk to me!”

I sigh. “Um, okay. I… I’ve always thought he was cute, but…”

“He was straight,” she guesses.

“He was straight. And that helped. But, uh, I always got vibes that maybe he wasn’t, but I wasn’t going to put that on him. Probably just wishful thinking, right?”

She laughs. “Guess not!”

I roll my eyes. “But that’s what I thought. Uh… he’s actually really easy to talk to. I’ve told him things that not even _you_ know about me.”

Her mouth drops open and she gasps. “What the hell? Maybe I _don’t_ like this kid.”

I laugh. “Good. That means we can end this conversation.”

“It most certainly does not. It means now you have to try even harder to convince me to support this new relationship.”

I roll my eyes. “Lucy. There is no relationship.”

“But there will be,” she insists.

“See, you don’t need convincing. We’re done here,” I say and then I look around. I accidentally make eye contact with Victor and he has this almost concerned facial expression. I blink and try not to smile too hard.

Lucy follows my eyes and giggles. “You are too cute. You’re literally sitting here eyefucking across the courtyard. I’m officially onboard,” she decides.

I turn away from Victor and look at Lucy. “Uh, thanks?”

“Don’t mention it!”

“I won’t.”

She laughs and then the bell rings.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victor's POV
> 
> Closing Shift at Brasstown, Part 1

I’m already exhausted when I walk into Brasstown for my shift that night. “Hey!” Benji says, looking up from the cash drawer as I walk by.

“Hey. I’ll be right out,” I mumble as I head into the backroom to drop off my backpack and get my apron. When I turn around from tying on my apron, he’s magically in front of me for the third time today. “I said I’d be right there.”

“You more like groaned it. Are you okay?”

“I’m exhausted, but otherwise yep.”

“Cold Brew?” he asks.

“Yes please,” I say, following him back to the front. Before I realize what’s happening, he’s pulling out a cup and the jug of cold brew. “I can get it myself,” I say, half-laughing.

He shrugs and pours it anyway. He turns around and hands the cup to me. “Drink that and wake up, please. You need to be awake so I have someone to talk to. It’s been dead all afternoon.”

I chuckle and take a sip. “I’ll see what I can do. Did Sarah already leave?"

He nods. "She ducked out about 20 minutes ago." I yawn. “Why are you so tired anyway?” he asks.

“Basketball,” I say. It’s not completely false but it’s even less true. I think he can tell.

“Rough practice?”

“Something like that.”

“Did Andrew do something again? Also, you never told me what he did this morning…”

“Uh, I told you he was at Mia’s dad’s fundraiser thing, right?”

“You said he kissed her…”

I nod. “He did. Uh, he asked why we broke up. I gave him the agreed upon story. I don’t think he bought it, but he just dove in on ‘where were you Saturday night?’ instead. So, without saying it, I made sure he knew I was aware that he kissed Mia.” Benji chuckles. “It was actually hilarious,” I agree.

“What did you say?”

“I brought up the fact that he’d made Mia a grilled cheese and there was just something else I couldn’t quite remember. Note those two things happened immediately following one another.” Benji chuckles again. “He let it go at first, but then after class he asked me where I was again and I told him. And then promptly ran into you when I left before waiting to find out if he believed me or not.”

Benji nods. “Right,” he says and I nod, too. “So, what happened at basketball.”

“Nothing really,” I say shrugging. “That’s not actually why I’m exhausted,” I admit.

He raises an eyebrow and thinks for a second. “Lake?”

I nod. “Yeah. That. She apparently wore off on everyone else and they just will not let it go,” I explain. “But whatever, they’ll have to get over it eventually. I’m thinking about telling her that if she doesn’t stop, I’m going to tell everyone about her and Felix. It might actually shut her up,” I say, chuckling.

“What are they bugging you about? They’re not…”

“No. No they’re not being mean about it. They’re, uh, a little too supportive if anything,” I say. I am not about to tell him what they’ve actually been saying. Not in the cards, sorry.

The bell on the door rings and we look up. I groan when I see Lake and Mia walking toward the register, but go to greet them. “Hey, guys! What can I get ya?”

Mia laughs, but I have no idea why. Lake stares at me pointedly. “Are you going to order?” I ask.

“Let me think,” Lake says and I can tell she’s staring at Benji and not the menu above his head, so I groan.

“Lake, you get the same thing every time you’re here. Do you want a cappuccino or not?”

“Oh, alright, yeah. A large cappuccino _for here_ ,” she insists.

“Of course. Mia?”

“Uh, a large vanilla latte with soy milk?”

“Sure,” I turn around to ask Benji if he heard them, but he’s already pulling the espresso shots, so I turn back to take their payments instead.

“Here you go, Lake!” Benji says putting her drink on the counter. “Mia,” he adds as he sets the second cup down.

“Thank you, Benji!” Lake says a little too happily and I give her the stink eye. She laughs. “When’s your break?” she asks turning back to me.

“Not till 7 probably? I just got here at 5. Basketball.”

“Right. Well, we’ll be here,” she says and then she trails off toward a table in the corner. Mia follows her but gives me a look that screams _I’m sorry_ first. I can’t help but laugh.

“Everything okay?” Benji asks. “You’re making your uncomfortable scrunch face again.”

I take a deep breath and nod. “Yep. I just thought I was done with them for today. Although, this definitely seems like it was all Lake’s idea.” He raises an eyebrow and glances toward them. Lake is watching us and whispering to Mia who has her back turned. I have to fight the urge to groan. “I hate them so much.”

He chuckles. “Do you?”

“No, but after today I might.”

“Do they know that I know?”

I nod. “Yeah. Like I told you last night…”

“Right… you did mention that,” he says and then he pauses. “Wait. Is _that_ what they’ve been bugging you about all day.”

I sigh and nod. “Yeah. Yeah, it is. Which is also the only reason I didn’t agree to come sit with you and Lucy at lunch. I would have _loved_ to escape that, but that method of escape would have made them even more unbearable.”

He nods. “Uh, you know Lucy was giving me an equally hard time anyway, so it was honestly probably for the best.”

“I thought she was happy you broke up with Derek?” I ask.

He nods. “She is.” He glances toward Lake and Mia. “Let’s just say I think she and Lake would really get along.”

I can’t help but laugh. “Damn, are we just not allowed to be friends now? And. Wait. Did you tell her?”

He smirks and chuckles. “I did not. I told her I knew vaguely why you looked so uncomfortable and wanted to check on you. She put it together on her own, sorry.” he says quietly.

I shrug. "It's fine. It's weird, but the fact that she's your friend makes me trust that she won't say anything."

He half-smiles. "I really didn't mean to," he says.

"It's fine," I repeat.

He sighs. "If it makes you feel any better, she's gay, too. Or well, lesbian," he says.

I chuckle. "One big party," I say and then we're quite for a few seconds and just watching Lake and Mia.

“Do you want to go talk to them so they’ll leave?” he asks, nodding toward Lake and Mia.

I shrug. “They can’t do much harm in that corner. I can wait until my break.”

“Okay,” he says. “But I doubt you’ll want them to overhear my next question.”

I groan. I’d almost forgotten about that reason to dread this closing shift with Benji after the day I’ve had. “I’m gonna go talk to Lake and Mia,” I say. “What happened to pretending that didn’t happen?” I whisper as I walk past him and around the counter. He chuckles.

Lake is still watching Benji and I don’t understand why. I flop into the chair next to Mia. “What do you want, Lake?”

She smirks and finally looks at me. “He’s watching you,” she says.

“Okay,” I say, shrugging. “Why are you here?”

“I wanted coffee,” she says with fake innocence.

I roll my eyes. “Sure, you did. What do you actually want? Please?”

“Just trying to feel out the situation…”

“Lake. Can you please stop? Whatever it is you’re doing. Just stop. I’m… I’m not even out. And it’s not happening. Just stop.”

“But you want it to happen, right?” she asks and I stare at her without answering. She continues staring at me expectantly.

“Mia, a little help here?” I ask, turning to her.

“Lake, maybe we shouldn’t…”

“Mia, you wanted to come just as much as I did.”

I look at Mia and she closes her eyes. “Sorry,” she says and makes a weird face.

I groan. “Lake, seriously? Actually, no, you know what. Why don’t I text Felix and see if he wants to come, too? And my sister. Why not? Then you can all coordinate your efforts,” I say sarcastically.

“I like the way you think, Salazar,” Lake says and pulls out her phone.

I grab her wrist. “I was joking!”

“Oh, I know. I just realized it’s actually a brilliant plan.” And then she’s typing and I close my eyes. “Just stay over here, please. I really don’t need you embarrassing me on top of everything else,” I say as I get up.

She shoos me toward the counter. “Go back to your future boyfriend. We’ll be over here.”

My eyes go wide and I stare at her. “Can you shut up?” I ask and I glance over my shoulder. Trying to see if Benji heard that. Unfortunately, it would seem he did. I close my eyes and groan as I turn back to Lake. “I hate you. You know that? I actually hate you.”

“Oops,” she says, raising her shoulders. “Felix and Pilar are on their way!” she tells Mia and then she shoos me again. “Go on, Victor.”

I roll my eyes and sigh loudly as I walk back toward the counter. Benji is smirking at me and I can feel myself blushing. I need to keep my back to Lake or she’s going to run with that. I do _not_ need to give her anymore ammo. “There’s not a chance you didn’t hear that, is there?” I ask as I lean back against the counter.

“Nope.”

I groan. “I hate her. I actually, honest to God, hate her.”

“They’re not leaving, are they?”

I shake my head. “No. Worse. Lake invited Felix and my sister to join them!”

“Oops,” he says, smirking even harder and visibly trying not to laugh. “You’re face is so red, by the way.”

I cover my face with my hands. “Please don’t.”

“Just saying,” he says.

“I was aware,” I say with a sigh, looking at him. He has his back against the frame that leads into the backroom. He looks unimaginably hot leaning there in his perfectly tight t-shirt. He runs a hand through this hair and I’m pretty sure I stop breathing before I shake my head clear and sigh again. “They’re not leaving, so if you’re going to embarrass me, you might as well do it now,” I say. “At least Felix already knows about that part.”

“He does?”

I chuckle. “It’s his fault it happened,” I say. Benji raises an eyebrow and tilt his head. “I was happily creeping on your Instagram in peace when he walkie-talkied out of nowhere. It made me jump and accidently double click.”

“Walkie-talkied?” he asks, trying not the laugh.

I groan and roll my whole head with my eyes. “Yeah. Felix is… interesting to say the least. Uh, the day we moved in, he was apparently watching out the window and rushed downstairs to meet us. He gave me a walkie-talkie to keep in touch. When I asked him why we couldn’t just text, he asked where my sense of whimsy was.”

“He’s adorable,” Benji says, actually laughing now.

“Something like that,” I say and then the bell on the door rings again and I turn around to my sister and Felix entering the store. “Hey,” I say, rolling my eyes at them.

“What’s with the face?” Felix asks, throwing his arm around Pilar's shoulders. “Are you not happy to see your best friend and your favorite sister?” Pilar shrugs him off and they walk up to the counter and Benji chuckles behind me.

“Absolutely delighted,” I say sarcastically. “I mean, I would be if I didn’t know why you were here. Do you want coffee?”

He nods. "Sure."

“Hermana?”

“Do I get your discount?”

I glance at Benji. He shrugs. “Sarah’s not here and I won’t tell.”

“Yeah, alright.”

“Felix, the usual?” Benji asks, as he walks to the espresso machine.

“Please!”

“Pilar, what d’you want?” I ask her.

“Uh, iced vanilla latte.”

“You get that?” I ask over my shoulder toward Benji and he nods. I take Felix’s money and then Pilar’s and go to help Benji with their drinks. He smirks at me and I give him a look that makes him laugh.

Once Felix and Pilar are safely seated with Mia and Lake, Benji turns back to me. “So… care to elaborate on why you were scrolling the archives of my Instagram feed last night?” He says this loud enough that I’m sure my friends and sister hear, so I give him a look and he shrugs.

“Why does everyone hate me?”

He laughs. “I don’t hate you.”

“Clearly, you do.”

He laughs even harder. “I promise, I don’t hate you. It’s just funny to watch you squirm. You’re making some top notch faces tonight.” I groan and put my face in my hands again and he’s still laughing. “Come on…” he says, poking my shoulder. “At least let me _see_ the faces.”

“Nope,” I say into my hands.

“Well, you were scrolling pictures of me in 8th grade last night, I’m pretty sure that beats whatever face you’re making right now.”

“Can I ask you a question instead?” I say, glancing at him through my fingers.

He nods. “Okay. This should be interesting.”

“It’s relevant,” I promise.

He chuckles. “Okay.”

“Um, the selfie you posted yesterday…” He raises an eyebrow. “Uh… what did your caption mean?”

“Huh?”

“Your caption on Instagram. What were you talking about?”

He tilts his head. “I don’t even remember what I said, actually.”

“You said that shirt… which you just bought on Saturday… already has so many good memories… But… like, you had just broken up with Derek? And…”

He laughs. “Wow, you really are oblivious, aren’t you?”

I stare at him. He glances toward my friends and I keep my back to them. “I was talking about this weekend, Vic. I told you last night. I had a lot of fun with you…” he shrugs. “That’s what I was talking about.”

“Oh,” I say and I look down at my feet.

“What did you think I meant?”

I don’t look up. “I… uh, I didn’t know. That’s why I asked,” I say. I’m pretty sure it’s completely obvious that I’m lying, but I can’t say what I’m actually thinking.

He laughs under his breath. “Can you look at me?” he says quietly. I don’t move. “Please?” I take a deep breath and look up at him. He’s smirking at me again. “What’s happening in your head right now?” he asks.

I suck my lips in and press my teeth into them, trying to find words. “I wish my friends would leave,” I say quietly.

He laughs and nods. “That’s fair, honestly.”

And then, like none of that ever happened, he drops the subject and everything is fine. Everything is normal. A few more customers come and go, but my friends and sister don’t move which is honestly more annoying than I thought imaginable.

“I’m gonna take my break,” Benji says just after 6:30. “You can go when I come back.”

I nod. “Sounds good,” I agree and he disappears into the back room.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victor's POV
> 
> Closing Shift at Brasstown, Part 2

Benji’s not gone for 10 seconds when Lake suddenly appears on the other side of the counter. I just stare at her until she talks.

“He likes you,” she says matter-of-factly.

“Okay,” I say.

“Victor…”

“Lake. I told you. It’s not happening.”

“Why not?”

I close my eyes. “Because for one. I’m not out to anyone but you guys yet and I don’t want to be something he has to hide. I don’t want to hide him, but I’m also not ready to tell everyone else. So, please, just stop.”

She looks at me. “Why aren’t you ready?”

“Lake, honestly? That’s none of your business,” I say. “I’m not talking to you about this.”

“Fine, I’ll send Felix.”

“Yeah, and I’ll tell everyone the two of you have been hooking up,” I whisper. Her eyes go wide as she glances back to the others make sure no one heard. “Exactly. So just… Let. It. Go.”

“Okay. Okay. Geez,” she says and then she turns around and walks back to the table.

I sigh and lean against the door frame. I almost think I’ve finally calmed the storm when Pilar walks over. “Not about you, promise,” she says, because I guess my face must give away my annoyance.

“Does Mia not know about them hooking up?”

“Wait… _you_ know?”

“He came over on Saturday morning. While you were on your work trip. He originally asked for you because he was having… ‘lady problems’… I gave into his puppy dog eyes and he told me what happened.”

“You hung out with Felix?”

She blinks. “Yeah, and then we came here to get coffee and Lake suddenly showed up after a while. They hooked up in the bathroom.” My eyes go wide and Pilar chuckles. “Uh, but does Mia know?”

I shake my head. “Lake refuses to tell anyone.”

Pilar sighs. “Thanks,” she says and then walks back to the table.

Felix replaces her a second later. I lean my head to the side and tip my hands up. He chuckles. “What did you tell Lake? She’s giving me a death glare…”

“I told her I was going to tell everyone about you two hooking up if she didn’t drop the Benji thing,” I tell him. “By everyone I mainly meant Mia,” I say with a laugh.

“Yikes. Please don’t. I… uh, I would like this to keep happening…”

“I hear you hooked up in the bathroom here on Saturday,” I say.

His eyes go wide. “I hate your sister.”

I laugh. “Me, too.”

“Guess she’s no longer possessed by that benevolent spirit from yesterday,” he says, glancing back to the table. “Anyway, please don’t tell Mia.”

“I won’t,” I say sighing. “I was just trying to get Lake to stop. She’s driving me insane.”

“She’s right though,” he says. “Benji _definitely_ likes you.”

“Please don’t do this, Felix. Please. Worry about your own love life disaster, not mine.”

He sighs, but nods. “Alright. Alright. Hey, could I get another coffee?”

“Oh, yeah, sure,” I say and we walk toward the register. “Make Lake another, too?”

I laugh. “Trying to tell Mia yourself?”

“No. Do you think that’d be weird?”

I roll my eyes. “Anyone with half a brain knows you’re in love with Lake, Felix.” I take his money and then pull the shots of espresso. Felix is walking back to the table with the drinks when Benji reappears.

“Hey,” he says and then he leans to whisper close to my ear. “Any trouble while I was gone?” He nods toward the table.

I shake my head. “Not bad. I mean, Lake is… well, Lake, but I think I finally got her to shut up.”

“Oh?” he asks. He tilts his head, but the look on his face tells me he knows something.

“Benji…”

He closes his eyes. “I heard her talking when I was walking toward the bathroom,” he admits. I close my eyes and lean against the counter. “I didn’t mean to…”

“Yeah. I hate them all,” I say.

He laughs. “Do you?”

“Think I might, yeah.”

“Okay. Well, I’m not gonna say anything,” he says and then glances to the table. “At least until they’re gone. Uh, you wanna take your break?”

“May as well,” I agree. And then I duck into the backroom. Quickly shedding my apron and using the bathroom before walking over to the table of my friends and sister. “Can I sit without being annoyed to death?” I ask.

Lake nods and stares at me. “Why are you looking at him like that?” Mia asks.

“Nothing. No. No reason,” she says.

I know Mia doesn’t believe her, but she doesn’t push it. She turns to me instead. “He likes you,” she whispers.

“Not having this conversation,” I say and get up. “If you’re gonna do that, I’m just gonna go sit in the break room and stare at my phone instead.”

“Sorry, sorry,” she says. “I can just see how much you like him and he obviously likes you, too, so I don’t understand why you’re so against the whole thing.” She tilts her head.

“I’m leaving. Goodbye,” I say and then I walk back into the backroom.

The bell at the door rings a second later and I peak out. It’s a group of middle-aged moms. Benji can handle it, so I go to the staff room. I flop into one of the chairs and pull out my phone. I have a new message from Simon, so I open the Instagram app and read it.

> _Victor! I haven’t heard from you all day. Did you talk to Benji? Have people been weird about the Mia break up? You promised me updates! Love, Simon_

I groan and look at the time. I still have 10 minutes, so I type out a novel-length reply.

> _Simon. I did talk to Benji. Um, it turns out Derek’s kind of an asshole and had this coming for awhile actually, so that’s news. Then he posted this selfie with this caption that almost killed me. Partially because I couldn’t be sure what he was referring and partially because I hoped I knew what he was referring to._
> 
> _Uh, anyway, I was creeping through his Instagram feed and then Felix walkie-talkied me out of nowhere. I jumped and accidentally double clicked a selfie from 2014, so fuck me, I guess. I undid it and hoped he wouldn’t notice. He did._
> 
> _Uh, Andrew interrogated me about why I missed the fundraiser on Saturday in the locker room during gym. I nearly literally ran into Benji when I was leaving gym, so there’s that._
> 
> _Lake was relentlessly trying to convince me that Benji likes me all fucking day and now she has Mia and Felix and my fucking sister on her side of this war. Benji tried to rescue me at lunch, but I didn’t let him because that would have made it worse and now all four of them (Lake, Mia, Felix, and my sister) are sitting at a table in Brasstown all night while me and Benji are working. And it’s fucking dead, so they’re driving me insane._
> 
> _I’m just ready for this day to be over. – Victor_

I shove my phone back into my pocket and go to put my apron back on. When I get back to the front there’s a line. “There you are, thank God,” Benji says as I jump into action. I take all the orders as Benji keeps working on drinks. Eventually everyone’s ordered and I start helping with drinks until finally we’re clear. Only a few people stuck around, but that’s honestly for the best. My friends are still at their table in the corner, but there’s now a college-aged blonde with a laptop and two middle-aged moms, too. I look up at the clock. It’s after 8. Less than an hour until closing.

“You okay?” Benji asks as I lean against the counter.

I nod. “Yeah. I just wasn’t expecting that when I got back. Was it that busy the whole time I was gone?”

“Yeah. For whatever reason 7 o’clock was rush hour today.”

“Oh, well. Makes the time go faster,” I say. “I can’t believe they’re still here,” I say nodding toward my friends.

“They’re definitely making themselves at home,” he agrees.

It’s 20 ‘til 9 when they finally leave. They all only wave at us when they do and I’m sort of shocked, but extremely relieved. I go to clean their table and I can feel Benji watching me, but I try to ignore it. I drop their cups into the sink and immediately start washing them, to keep myself busy. I don’t want to look at him. He only promised he was done until they left and now their gone and I’m not ready for whatever conversation is about to happen.

“I’m gonna go ask people to clear out and lock the door,” he whispers, walking behind me a minute later. I glance at the clock. It’s 5 ‘til. I hear him tell the few remaining customers that we’re closing up and then some scraping chairs and the bell on the door ringing. Benji drops more cups into the sink as he passes by. “I’m gonna kill this horrible music and start restocking.”

“Okay,” I say. “I’ll finish these and start wiping down the tables.” _Maybe he forgot._

“She’s right, by the way,” he says casually as we’re wiping down the last of the tables in silence. I look at him. “What?”

“Who’s right about what?” I ask, even though I think I know what he’s talking about.

He bites his lip and then smiles at me. “Lake,” he says. “Do I need to clarify which statement I’m referring to?” I close my eyes and shake my head. “Okay, which leads me to my next question.” I look at my feet to avoid his eyes. “Why aren’t you ready?”

I take a huge breath, hold it for a second, and let it out, but don’t say anything. I don’t know how to answer that. What does he want me to say?

“I know you told Lake it’s none of her business… which is true, for the record,” he says. “But… I’d kind of like it to be my business.”

“What does that even mean?” I ask.

He laughs. “You really are oblivious,” he says. Then suddenly he’s kissing me and I’m kissing him back and the world is dissolving around us until the only thing I know for sure is that he's still kissing me.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Benji's POV
> 
> Closing Shift at Brasstown, Part 3

We’ve been cleaning up in silence. Because I don’t actually want to embarrass him, but I do want to talk to him. Finally, we’re almost done. We’re wiping down the last of the tables, so I look at him and he meets my eyes with a faint smile. “She’s right, by the way,” I say, trying to be casual. He gives me a confused (or is it annoyed look). “What?”

“Who’s right about what?” he asks and I know he knows what I’m talking about, but I’ll play this game if I have to.

I bite my lip nervously and smile at him for a second. “Lake,” I say. “Do I need to clarify which statement I’m referring to?” He closes his eyes and shakes his head as he tilts his chin toward his chest. “Okay, which leads me to my next question. Why aren’t you ready?” He takes a visibly huge breath and holds it for a second. He doesn’t look up as he exhales, staring at his own shoes. “I know you told Lake it’s none of her business… which is true, for the record,” I say. “But… I’d kind of like it to be my business.”

“What does that even mean?” he asks. Does he really not understand? I try to look at his face but he’s still looking at his shoes. I laugh and his head pops up.

“You really are oblivious,” I say and then I kiss him. He freezes for a fraction of a second and I think about pulling away, but then he’s kissing me back and any hesitation melts away. We kiss for what feels like hours, but is only a couple minutes and then I pull away, putting my hands on his shoulders and looking at his face. He’s smiling. “Does that clear things up?” I ask. He nods. “So, talk to me, Victor,” I plead. “I know you’re worried about your parents. Is that all it is or is there something else stopping you?” He closes his eyes and looks at the ground again. I squeeze his shoulders a little. “Please look at me,” I say quietly.

He looks up and sighs. “It’s complicated.”

“I’ll listen,” I promise, dropping my hands

He exhales loudly. “Okay. Um. I’m just really scared of what everyone else is going to do or say. Not just my parents, but… people at school… the basketball team…”

“That’s understandable,” I say. “I was scared, too. And being scared made me do some pretty stupid shit if you don’t remember.” He nods. “Remember on Saturday when you said the words for the first time?” He nods again. “Remember what that felt like? When everyone knows, it’s like that times a thousand. You don’t have to hide anymore. You don’t have to pretend. There’s not lies or half-truths around every corner. You can finally just _be_. I know it’s scary and I completely understand if you’re not ready for that. I promise I do, but just know that when you are ready…”

“Right now, it’s like I’m trying to figure out which side of the scale is heavier,” he says and I tilt my head. “On one side, I have my fear. My fear of what everyone else is going to think and say and do. Especially, my parents.” He swallows and looks at me. “On the other side, I have everything you just said. And how much I want this,” he admits and I know what he means. I smile at him. “And right now they feel really even and it’s really hard to figure out if one is worth the other.”

“That makes sense,” I tell him and it does, but I wish I could drop a thousand-pound boulder on the wanting this side, because that’s how I feel. “Can I ask you something else?” He nods. “What do you think is going to happen? What specifically are you afraid of? With your parents or with everyone else.”

“Um,” he starts to say. “Uh, well, with my parents… I know they don’t really approve of this sort of thing. I… I told you want my dad said on my birthday.”

I swallow and nod. “What do you think they’d do?”

He shrugs. “I really don’t know. Probably make me go to church for starters…”

“You don’t think they’d try to understand… at all?”

“I don’t know. But they’ve never given me any reason to think they’d ever be supportive.”

“What about how much they love you Victor? They stood up for you when you stood up to your grandpa on your birthday,” I remind him. “And I can tell from the few times I’ve seen them that they really care about you.”

He sighs. “They do. I… I love my parents, but that doesn’t mean…”

I nod. “I get that. You’re still worried. It makes sense,” I assure him. “What about everyone else?” He bites his lip and shrugs. “Vic, talk to me, please.”

“I don’t really know,” he says quietly. “But I’ve had nightmares… And I guess I’m just worried they’ll actually happen.”

“What happens in your nightmares?” He closes his eyes and sort of snorts a little laugh. “It sounds like you know they aren’t realistic,” I say. He exhales through his nose and nods a little. “So, what happens?”

“People boo. Like actually boo. And my parents look super disappointed and disgusted.”

“What are they booing? You’re general existence… or?”

“ _God_ ,” he groans. “This is so embarrassing.” He buries his face in his hands.

I can’t help the smirk that arises on my face as I reach for his wrists, trying to peel his hands back. “Come on… it can’t be that bad,” I say.

“It is. I promise it is,” he says. And then he finally lets me pull his hands away. I don’t let go of his wrists for fear he’ll cover his face again, and instead slide my hands to intertwine my fingers with his and look at him, waiting for him to speak. He groans and rolls his head with his eyes, squeezing my hands.

“Please?” I ask. Smiling at him. “I want to know what these unfounded fears actually are.”

He groans and sighs and then looks at me for a second. “Okay,” he says finally, “but you have to promise not to laugh.”

“If it scares you this much, I’m not going to laugh,” I promise.

He swallows and nods once. “Uh. It’s actually just one nightmare. I just keep having it.”

“Oh?”

“Um… You remember how I said my first day at Creekwood was a disaster?” I nod. “It didn’t stop at school.”

I tilt my head. “You mean the Ferris Wheel thing?”

“Actually, kind of.”

“But you liked Mia…”

“I _do_ like Mia. I thought like-liked her. But that’s not the problem.”

“Okay…”

“So, before I asked Mia to go on the Ferris Wheel…” He pauses and takes a deep breath. “For a split second, I thought about asking you instead.”

And now I’m smiling. “Okay,” I say, trying to reign myself in. “Why didn’t you?”

He snorts. “Uh. I don’t know. I mean, I guess I do know. Uh, so when I first moved here,” he says and I don’t understand where this is going. “When I first moved here, I was originally going to come out… at school anyway… right away. At least as… not straight, I guess. I mean, I pretty much knew I was gay, but I wasn’t ready to admit that much yet. I was still trying to figure it out.”

“Why didn’t you?” I ask again.

“Uh, a lot of things happened, but mostly I choked. And it doesn’t matter now.”

“Okay,” I say quietly. “How does this relate to your recurring nightmare?” I ask before it dawns on me. I look at him as he speaks.

“In the nightmare, I _did_ ask you instead of Mia. And because I didn’t know about Derek at the time, you said yes.”

“I would have said yes,” I tell him.

“What? You… Derek…”

I chuckle. “Uh, for one Derek wasn’t there. For two, did you not notice, I made a point of coming over to talk to Felix that morning? Or when I helped you up at lunch? Or when I threw the other applications away and gave you the job even after you covered us both in foam at the interview.”

“Wait. You what?”

I laugh. “You really are oblivious,” I tell him again. He tilts his head at me. “I liked you, too,” I tell him. “A lot.”

He closes his eyes and shakes his head. “What? No. Derek. I…”

I laugh again. “I liked you, too. I told you things had been off with us for months and I meant that. _You_ gave me the courage I needed to finally end things when you came out to me this weekend. It was like, if you had the courage to do _that_. Why the hell couldn’t I tell Derek I was done. His antics on Friday didn’t help matters of course, but honestly, Vic. I thought I was so obvious.” He’s staring at me. “If I had known you were gay from day one. I would have broken up with him a long time ago,” I admit. He’s still staring at me and I sort of smirk at him. “Are you okay?” He nods slowly. “Vic… say something please. You’re scaring me.”

“Um…” he mumbles. He glances down and then looks at me again. I swear he’s trying not to smile and it makes me laugh silently. “Um… I… I thought I was imagining things, honestly,” he admits and I shake my head.

“Really?”

He nods. “Yeah… I, uh, thought I was just seeing what I wanted to see. Especially after I found out about Derek… I…” He pauses and I tilt my head at him again. “Um, I think I actually once told Simon that you having a boyfriend was the best thing that could have happened,” he says. And I’m a little taken aback. “Because it meant you were off the table. I didn’t have to choose between you and Mia. I could just focus on Mia which was the safe and ‘normal’ thing. And…”

“Seriously?” I ask. “Wow… I, uh… WAIT! Is that why Simon knew? You were talking about me…” He closes his eyes and nods as he tries not to laugh. “Oh my _God_ , Vic. I, uh, thought I was seeing what I wanted to see, too,” I tell him. “Lucy called me out at lunch. It wasn’t even a question. She’s just said, ‘you’ve liked him since before the breakup.’ And I couldn’t argue with her, because it was true.”

“How did she know that?” he asks.

“Uh, what was it she said? ‘There’s no way you could be this far gone in 24 hours.’” He drops my hands and covers his face for a second and laughs again. “Yeah. Embarrassing. Anyway. The nightmare… I don’t understand?”

“Uh, so, we’re on the Ferris wheel and for some reason everyone is watching. And then we’re just kind of looking at each other and I think we’re going to kiss and then… boos. They all boo and I can see my mom crying and… every single person I know in Atlanta is just booing and…”

I exhale and then I wrap my arms around him. “Vic, that wouldn’t happen.”

“But. It just feels so real,” he says and it sounds like he might cry. And I understand, I do, but I need him to understand, too, because I don’t just want this anymore. I need this. I step back from him and watch his face and he watches me. “Why are you looking at me like that?” he says.

“I couldn’t even tell you what my face looks like right now,” I admit. “I just. I need you to understand that that won’t happen. It won’t. Sure, you’ll get a couple people that are assholes about it, but most people won’t even care. I just…”

He swallows and nods. “I’m still scared,” he says.

“I know. I know,” I say with a sigh and I hug him again. “I get it.”

This time he hugs me back and we just stand there for a minute. “Thank you,” he whispers. “You really are the actual best.”

I exhale a little laugh. “I try,” I say and then I sigh. “I just know what it’s like to be where you are and I wish I’d had someone to tell me these things.”

He doesn’t say anything, so we’re silent again, but we holding each other and honestly, it’s kind of perfect. But I need to know what’s happening, so I sort of have to ruin it. “Can I ask you another question?” He nods and sniffs loudly. I sigh. “How long… how long do you think it’s going to take… for you to be ready?”

He doesn’t say anything but he hugs me tighter for a second and I squeeze him back. “I don’t know,” he finally says. “Can… can we revisit this conversation… in… a week?”

I nod a little and close my eyes. “Yeah. That sounds fair.” And, I don’t want to let him go, but I know I have to. He has to do this for himself. So, I sigh and drop my arms as we step apart. I try to smile at him, but honestly my heart hurts in ways I didn’t know it would.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” he asks again.

I swallow and shake my head. “It’s just… I’ve been out for awhile now, but I really want this. I really do. I just…”

“Don’t want to have something to hide.”

I nod. “Yeah. But that doesn’t mean anything. You don’t have to… you don’t have to do this for me. I need you to understand that. I’m being kind of selfish, honestly.”

He smiles at me. “I don’t think you are.”

“I am,” I argue. “Not that what I’ve said tonight isn’t true,” I say. “But I was really hoping it would add some weight to the wanting this side of your metaphorical scale.”

“It did,” he says. “But I’m still really scared. And, Benji, I know it’s selfish of me to say that, but it’s true.”

“That’s not selfish,” I tell him. “Wanting you to come out before you’re completely ready is selfish. You get to decide who knows, when they know, and how they find out. That’s your story to write. I just get to watch it.”

He smiles at me and stares for a second. His eyes briefly flicker to my lips and I inhale sharply. I really want to kiss him again, but I don’t. I can’t do that to myself. “It’s getting late,” I say. “We should finish cleaning up.” He nods and looks around. We wipe down the last couple tables and then head to the back room to take off our aprons and get out bags. I lock the door behind us as we’re leaving. “Look, Victor,” I say as I turn around. “I’m really sorry if I made this harder for you.”

“You didn’t,” he says.

“I don’t want you to feel pressured into anything,” I say. “I mean that. I… I really like you, but that doesn’t mean you have to… to come out to the world right now. You get to decide the timeline,” I say. He nods and he’s staring at me again and his eyes flicker to my lips and then back.

“I really want to kiss you right now,” he whispers.

I close my eyes. I really want to kiss him, too. “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I say.

“Why not?”

“Because as much as I want that, too. I think it might cloud your judgment on the rest of what you’re dealing with right now and I don’t want to do that anymore than I already have,” I say with a sigh.

“It won’t,” he says. “I, uh… So, you know how I was talking about that scale earlier?”

I swallow and nod. “Yeah.”

“There’s a third part of the equation, I didn’t know about.”

I tilt my head at him. “I don’t understand.”

“How much I want to kiss you right now,” he says. “And that’s heavier than both of the other parts combined.”

I swallow. “Victor… I.”

“Please, listen to me,” he says. “I… I want to kiss you so much that I’m willing to do practically anything to make it happen,” he says. “And that includes coming out. I… I don’t want you to think you’re pressuring me into this, because you’re not. I’ve… I’ve wanted to kiss you basically since the moment I met you. And… now that I have, I can’t go back.”

“I shouldn’t’ve done that,” I say.

“Don’t say that,” he begs. “Please don’t say that.”

“Okay,” I say and then he steps toward me. He puts his right hand on my cheek and leans forward. I start to lean away and he sighs.

“Please,” he begs. “Please let me kiss you,” he says, staring into my eyes.

I take a deep breath and I can’t say no to that face, so I do. He kisses me and I kiss him and I almost don’t remember why I was trying not to let this happen because it’s actually perfect. He’s perfect. This moment is perfect. I want a thousand more moments just like this one. When he pulls away, he doesn’t drop his hand, but moves his thumb back and forth on my cheek bone. He bites his lip for a second and then says, “So, I’m going to go tell my parents. And I’ll see you at school tomorrow.”

My eyes go wide. “Victor…”

“I want to,” he promises.

“But…”

He smiles and then kisses me again briefly. “I think your lips might be made of magic,” he whispers and then he winks, drops his hand and turns around to walk toward his apartment complex. I stare after him for a long time, until he disappears around the corner. He never looks back.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victor's POV
> 
> At home after the closing shift at Brasstown

When I walk into the apartment, I’m both relieved and nervous to find my parents sitting on the couch in the living room. I need to do this right now before I lose my nerve.

“Hola, mijo!” my mom says. “You’re late. Everything okay?”

“Uh, yeah. It just took us a while to clean up tonight,” I say. “Uh, can you stay right there while I get Pilar. I need to tell you guys something.”

My parents both stare at me for a long second. “Yeah, okay,” my mom says eventually. I take a deep breath and walk back the hall to Pilar’s room. I knock on the door.

“Go away,” she says and I chuckle.

“It’s me,” I say.

“Oh, come in then,” she says. I snort a laugh and open the door. “What’s up?” she asks, looking up from her laptop. She freezes when she sees my face. “What the hell happened after we left?”

“I’ll explain that later. Right now, you promised to be with me when I do what I’m about to do, so can you come the living room.”

“You’re telling them?” she asks as if she doesn’t believe it. I nod. “WOW. Clearly something happened tonight,” she says, but she gets to her feet and follows me out of the room.

“Okay,” I say once Pilar sits down on the couch next to our dad and they’re all staring at me. I take a deep breath.

“You can do this,” Pilar says, looking at me pointedly. I nod slowly.

My dad raises an eyebrow. “Do you already know what he wants to tell us?” he asks, looking at Pilar and she nods. “Okay,” he says and turns back to me, “so why did you need to get her first?”

I laugh. “Uh… moral support?” Both of my parents raise an eyebrow at me and Pilar cackles. I roll my eyes and shake my head. “Can I just get this over with?” I ask. My parents nod and Pilar makes a show of stopping her laughter. I take a deep breath and let it out. “Mom, Dad… I’m gay.”

Saying the words to them feels almost as good as the first time I said them. It’s like a new form of breathing where everything just makes more sense. They both stare at me for a long time without saying anything. I glance to my sister and she smiles and nods before mouthing _proud of you_. I smile back and look back to my parents. They’re now looking at each other and having some sort of silent conversation with their eyes. I swallow loudly and wait. Eventually they turn to me.

“Mijo,” my mom says. “Is this why you broke up with Mia?” I nod.

“What happened?” my dad asks.

“What d’you mean?” I ask.

“I mean… you were dating a girl and now you’re saying this. I’m not sure I understand.”

I swallow again. “I’ve been confused for a long time,” I say. “I… I thought I might be since before we left Texas,” I admit. And they’re still watching me with expressions I can’t read. “And when I met Mia, I… I guess I wondered if she might be the exception. Because I really liked spending time her. I still do. She’s awesome. But some things happened that made me realize I wasn’t actually attracted to her and no matter how much I wanted it to, it was never going to work out with her. So, I told her, and we _are_ still friends and she’s actually been great. A little too great,” I say glancing at Pilar as she laughs under her breath. “And… yeah.”

My mom looks like she might cry. I can’t tell tell if it’s good or bad tears. My dad is just staring at me with a straight face. I look at my sister and she’s smiling at me and I take a deep breath and try to focus on that. I try to focus on why I’m doing this. I swallow and look back to my parents. My mom is now smiling at me and dabbing the tears from her eyes and it sort of startles me for a second.

“Mijo,” she breaths. “Oh, Victor, honey. This can’t have been easy for you.” I don’t know what to say to that, so I don’t say anything. “We love you,” she says. “No matter what.” And I think I’m actually smiling now. Then she tilts her head slightly. “Is there a boy we should know about?”

I close my eyes for a second and exhale loudly. Pilar is cackling again. “That’s a yes, right?” my mom asks, looking at Pilar. She nods fervently. My mom turns back to me and I can feel my face burning. “What’s his name? Is it someone we know?” Then freezes. “Not that strange one from upstairs.”

I actually laugh and I think Pilar laughs even harder. “No,” I say. “No, definitely not Felix. He is _painfully_ straight.” This makes Pilar laugh even more. She’s actually bent double, her face basically pressed against her knees.

“Well...” my mom says. “Who is it? Have we met him?”

I sigh and bite my lip, averting my eyes. “Yes. You’ve met him.” My mom tilts her head and thinks. I groan. “He was at my birthday party. Uh…”

“One of the boys Tito saw?” my dad asks.

I groan again. “Yeah. Uh. They broke up yesterday, too.”

They’re both staring at me for a second and Pilar is still laughing, though she’s now sitting back up and trying to keep it under control. “Can you leave?” I ask her. She laughs out loud.

“No way. I’m not about to miss this,” she says. I groan.

“Which one?” my mom says. “The one you work with?”

I nod. “That’s why Pilar… and Felix… and Mia… and Lake were all annoying the crap out of me at work all night,” I tell them.

“Is that where you went?” my dad asks, turning to her and she nods.

“Uh, Lake texted Felix. He texted me,” she says, shrugging. “We got coffee.”

“And embarrassed me in front of Benji,” I say, looking at her. She tries not to laugh out loud, but ends up snorting. I roll my eyes at her and turn back to my parents. “So, yeah…”

My mom smiles at me. “Okay. So are you and this Benji kid…”

“I don’t know, Mom,” I say. “It’s, uh, it’s new and we haven’t really talked about it yet.”

She nods. “Well I want to meet him again. In the right capacity this time.”

I groan. “Please no.”

“Victor,” she says. I cover my face with my hands and Pilar is laughing again.

“Flaco, your mom’s right,” my dad says. “Maybe next weekend…”

“Oh! Isn’t the school dance on Friday night?” my mom remembers suddenly. “Why don’t you invite him for pictures before.”

“Because you are literally the most embarrassing person on the planet when you have a camera in your hands,” I say as if that’s obvious, because _it is_. “I already spent all night with my three best friends and my sister embarrassing me in front of him. I don’t need that on top of it.”

“You should invite all your friends and their dates,” she insists. “It’ll be nice.”

I groan. “Mom…”

“I’ll do it,” Pilar says, pulling out her phone. I stare at her.

“Thank you, honey,” my mom says, smiling at her and I groan.

“I’m going to bed,” I say. I don’t wait for a response before walking back the hall.

Just as I start digging through my drawer for pajamas, I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket. I pull it out. It’s a text from Benji that says: _You don’t have to do this, but if you already did, are you okay?_

I have to laugh, because I was so scared about this and now, I’m just annoyed and even more embarrassed than I was an hour ago. I hate my sister… and my friends… and my parents. _I’m fine. I’ll tell you about it tomorrow at school._

_You told them?_

_I did._

_Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow at school._

I take a deep breath and set my phone on top of my dresser before heading to the bathroom. Pilar is waiting in the hallway. “I do believe you owe me an explanation.”

I groan. “Can we not do this right now?” She crosses her arms and stares at me. “Okay. How about I shower and then I’ll tell you? And honestly, we may as well call everyone else and just do it all at once, right? So, you work on orchestrating that and I’m going to shower. Okay?”

“Okay,” she says with a smirk and pulls her phone out as she walks into my room. I roll my eyes and go into the bathroom.

After I shower, I stare at myself in the mirror for a long minute. Everyone’s going to know tomorrow anyway, because I am actually pretty sure his lips are made of magic and magnets. I’m not going to be able to stop myself from kissing him now that I can. I snort a little laugh and shake my head. I get dressed and hang up my towel before grabbing my dirty clothes and heading back to my room.

I try not to look at Pilar, where she’s sitting on my desk chair as I drop my clothes into my hamper and pick up my phone from the dresser. I have an Instagram message from Simon and I almost snort again. That’s going to be a roller coaster ride of explanation, but I’ll save that for later. “So…” Pilar prompts after I still haven’t said anything.

“So,” I say as I sit down on the edge of the bed. “Did we figure out how we’re phoning everyone in?”

“Uh, Felix asked if he could come down, actually.”

I groan and pick up the walkie-talkie. I press the button and it crackles. “Victor to Felix, over,” I say and Pilar bites back a laugh.

“I’m here, over.”

“Come down here so I can get this over with, please?” I say. “Over.”

“On my way, bestie! Over.”

I set the walkie-talkie back down. “Mia and Lake?”

“I’ll call Mia and you or Felix can call Lake?”

“Sure,” I say. “Get Mia on the line and I’ll have Felix call Lake when he gets down here.” I hear a knock on the door and run down the hall. My parents are still in the living room and staring at me. “It’s Felix,” I explain. “Apparently, I owe everyone an explanation of what happened after they left earlier. It’ll only be a few minutes and then he’ll be gone, promise.” I don’t wait for them to respond before throwing the door open. “My room,” I say gesturing. “And call Lake. Pilar’s calling Mia. I’m only doing this once.”

He pulls his phone out as I walk back the hall after him. He sits on the side of my bed and I sit next to. “Okay, Mia,” Pilar says. “Putting you on speaker now.” She pulls the phone away from her ear and presses the speaker button. “Can you still hear me?”

“Loud and clear!” Mia’s voice says.

“Hey, Mia,” I say.

“Victor!” she says. “You told your parents? What the hell happened?”

I laugh. “Can you wait until we get Lake on the phone, too. I only want to do this once.”

“Oh, yeah, sure. Are you calling her?”

“Felix is,” I say and Felix is already mumbling into the phone and then he looks up and nods.

“Okay, putting you on speaker,” he says and pulls the phone away and presses the button.

“Okay, can you both hear me?” I say.

“Yes!” both Lake and Mia say.

“Perfect. I am only telling this story once. Do you understand?” Pilar and Felix nod while Lake and Mia hum in agreement. I snort an exhale. “First of all, Lake, this is your fault.”

“What?” she says. “What did I do?”

I roll my eyes. “You know how you came over to talk to me literally a second after Benji left for break?”

“Yeah.”

“He heard that conversation.”

She laughs. “Oh my God. I had no idea,” she says, but she doesn’t apologize and she continues laughing.

“He, uh, told me that when he first got back. But said he wasn’t going to say anything until you guys left.” They all laugh and I groan. “Anyway, after we closed, we were cleaning up. We were almost finished wiping down the tables and I thought maybe he forgot and then he just said ‘she’s right, by the way.’”

“Told you,” Lake says and I groan again.

“Then he asked me the same thing you did; why I wasn’t ready and when I didn’t answer he said what I told you was true that it’s not your business, which it still isn’t honestly. But that he wanted it to be his business.”

“Oh. My. God.” Lake says.

“Victor!” Mia practically shouts from Pilar’s phone.

I sigh. “I asked him what that even meant. He called me oblivious and then… he kissed me.” They’re all silent and Pilar is gaping at me.

“Holy fuck,” Felix says eventually.

“We talked for a while. Which I’m not repeating any of because it really is none of any of your businesses.”

“But I’m your best friend!” Felix says. I think I might have offended him.

“Sorry, no dice. We finished cleaning up and he locked the door. We were standing outside and I told him I wanted to kiss him. He said he didn’t think that was a good idea because it would cloud my judgment about the coming out thing. I said some things and begged him to let me kiss him again and… he did.”

“Awwwww,” Mia says before she can help herself and I sigh.

“Then I told him I was going home to tell my parents and that I’d see him tomorrow. He told me I didn’t have to do that and I told him I wanted to. And I kissed him again and said something about his lips being made of magic and then I left.”

“Victor,” Mia says again. “Are my lips not magic? You never told me _my_ lips were magic.” And then she's laughing and I’m laughing, too and so are the other three.

“I’m sure someone will think your lips are magic someday, Mia,” I say once we all calm down. “Just not me. For obvious reasons.” We all laugh again for a minute.

“So you’ll stop fighting with me about this now?” Lake asks from Felix’s phone and I roll my eyes.

“Yes, Lake. OH! Also, he thinks you and his friend Lucy would really get along.”

“What?” she asks.

“Um, apparently she was giving him an equally hard time at lunch today after the whole vending machine thing.”

“I like her already!”

I roll my eyes. “Okay, well, I would like to go to bed, so if you could all get out of my bedroom, that’d be ideal.”

“We’re in your room?” Mia asks.

“Well, Pilar and Felix are, so their phones are, too.”

Mia chuckles. “Alright. Um, how did your parents take it, by the way?”

“Think they’re on your side of this,” I say and roll my eyes. “OH, and everyone’s supposed to come here to take pictures before the dance on Friday. So my mom can embarrass the shit out of me, too, I guess.”

“Wait, are you two going to the dance together?” Lake asks.

“Uh… I mean we haven’t actually discussed that…”

“Are you going to be like… out at school?” she asks.

I groan. “Uh…” I say and then I look at Pilar who raises her eyebrows. I sigh. “I’m pretty sure his lips are actually made of magic… and magnets… I don’t think I have a choice in the matter.” They all laugh again and Pilar is smirking at me. I hate them all. I really do.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victor's POV
> 
> Finish out the night and start the next morning.

Pilar and Felix both eventually leave and I hear the apartment door open and close as Felix goes back to his own home. I close the door and collapse onto my bed. I decide it’s finally time to read and reply to Simon’s DM.

> _Which selfie? What was the caption? You said he noticed. How do you know he noticed? Did he say something? Are you feeling any better? How was the rest of the night? Love, Simon_

I laugh. Well, this is about to be hilarious.

> _This selfie and caption [screenshot attached] which I actually asked him about earlier and it is in fact about what I thought it was about, so yep. That’s a thing._
> 
> _I know he noticed because HE TEXTED ME A SCREENSHOT last night and said he was going to pretend he didn’t see it with a [winking emoji]. And then he definitely did not pretend, because he asked me to explain myself earlier and I swear to God I almost died of embarrassment._
> 
> _I am in fact feeling tons better than I was on my break and the rest of the night was… eventful._
> 
> _Benji overheard a conversation between me and Lake… ABOUT HIM. And asked me about it after they left… and then… he kissed me, Simon, and omfg. And I kissed him and it was… you were right it is SO MUCH more than butterflies. Just wow._
> 
> _Then we talked about things and I told him I still wasn’t ready to be out and we were going to discuss it again in a week but then we were standing outside after he locked the door and I really wanted to kiss him again so I told him and he told me it was a bad idea because it would cloud my judgment about the coming out thing and I made the best puppy dog face I could muster until he kissed me again and I swear to GOD his lips are made of magic and magnets, Simon._
> 
> _So, we left and then I came home… and I told my parents. I actually told my parents and they weren’t even mad? They asked if it was why I broke up with Mia and I sort of explained to them that I’d been confused for a while. My mom asked if there was a boy they should know about and my fucking sister couldn’t manage to not laugh for three seconds so I had to tell them about Benji. And now I guess all my friends are coming here to take pictures before Spring Fling on Friday._
> 
> _And by this time tomorrow, I’m going to be out-out to everyone and I don’t even know. It’s been a really weird and really long day, Simon. But it’s also been really great. – Victor_

I close Instagram, but before I can even set my phone down it buzzes again. Simon already replied. I chuckle and re-open the app.

> _Bram once told me I was made of magnets. This after the first time he kissed me in the middle of Penn Station during our first year of college. I’m glad you found your person made of magnets, Vic. I’m really really happy for you. It sounds like you had a pretty great night. So… are you going to the dance with Benji now? I need to know what’s happening here because that was not enough details._

I sigh and laugh through my nose a little before replying.

> _Hopefully. But we haven’t actually discussed it yet. All I know is there’s no way I’ll be able to keep my hands… or well lips to myself when I see him tomorrow. So, I guess everyone’s going to just know and honestly, I don’t even care anymore. I’m tired of being scared about it. It’s going to happen and if people don’t like it, they’re going to have to deal with it._

I close the app again and lay back on my bed, staring at the ceiling. I can’t sleep and I don’t know what possesses me, but I pick up my phone again and text Benji. _I hope I don’t wake you up, but I wanted to warn you. I told Felix, Lake, Mia, and my sister what happened after I told my parents. And you can thank my sister for this, but my parents know you exist now. I mean they know that you exist as more than my coworker and friend from my birthday party. And my mom wants everyone to come here for pictures before the dance on Friday. So, I guess I’m sort of asking if you’ll go to the dance with me? Okay. I’m sending this now before I say anything else embarrassing._

I press send and set the phone back down. I go back to staring at the ceiling for a minute until my phone buzzes. I take a deep breath and pick it up.

_Yes, to answer your question. Goodnight. [kissy face emoji]_

I don’t sleep. I can’t sleep. Benji is going to the dance… with me… there’s no sleeping after something like that. I also can’t stop thinking about his lips and what they feel like on mine and everything that was perfect about this night. I don’t even care about Lake’s antics anymore. I’m only slightly concerned about how much my mom’s going to embarrass me on Friday.

In the morning, I practically drag Felix into Brasstown. “I literally did not sleep.”

“What the hell happened?”

I bite my lip. “It’s a long story,” I say as I hold the door open and motion for him to go first. He looks at me and raises his hands to tell me to explain. I sigh. “I texted Benji after you guys left… to let him know that you all knew about last night and let him know that my parents now know he exists… And I was half delirious so I asked him to the dance… And he said yes?”

“Oh. My. God. VICTOR!”

“Shut up,” I say, half-exasperated at Sarah calls us to the counter. “Hey, Sarah!”

“OH! Victor! Good morning. Cold Brew?”

“Please. I’m actually dying. I didn’t sleep last night,” I complain.

She laughs. “Uh, $1.50 with you discount.”

I hand her the money and she drops it in the drawer before pouring my coffee and handing me the cup. “And Felix, the usual?”

“You know it!” he says.

She rolls her eyes and takes his money before quickly making his drink and setting it on the counter. Felix grabs the cup and we head out the door and toward school.

When we walk in there’re banners everywhere advertising the dance and there’s a table set up where two kids I think must be on student council are selling tickets. “Aw. The school dance,” Felix says. “The perfect place for a night of romance with my sweetie. If my sweetie didn’t think being seen with me was social suicide.”

“What’s the latest with you two? Other than hooking up in Brasstown’s bathroom…”

He sighs. “She still doesn’t want anyone knowing we’re hooking up. But she did tell Mia, so baby steps.”

“Wait. When?”

“Last night. Before I came downstairs. I guess Mia wouldn’t stop bugging her about about why she was looking at you so weird at the coffee shop and she cracked.”

“I can’t believe she still won’t tell anyone,” I say.

“No. No, no, no, I totally get it. She is completely out of my league. We’re kind of like if Taylor Swift was dating the dog from _A Dog’s Prupose_.”

“Hey, you're not a dog,” I say. I turn to stop in front of him. “Okay, you’re charming, you have thick, shiny hair, and really nice brown eyes.”

“You are literally describing the dog form _A Dog’s Purpose._ ”

“Okay, do you wanna be with Lake for real?” I ask.

“Of course. I mean, I’ve thought of so many ways to ask her to the dance. I mean, skywriting, flash mob, a cappella serenade…”

“Then ask her. But, you know, in like, a, a normal way.”

“Okay,” he says, so I turn around.

I sort of freeze in place when I notice Benji is standing next to my locker smirking at me. And I hear Felix laugh over my shoulder as he walks up next to me. “Go get ‘im,” he says and then pushes me forward.

I groan and sort of flail as I almost fall and I can hear Benji’s laugh even though the hallway is crowded. “Sorry,” Felix says as he brushes by. “Not really,” he adds a second later. “Hey, Benji!” he says more loudly and I look up in time to see him wave and Benji nod toward him before looking back at me and biting his lip.

I exhale loudly through my nose and shake my head as I walk toward him. “I’m going to murder him,” I say and Benji laughs.

“You keep saying things like that and you won’t have any friends left.”

I shrug. “I could never murder you, so I’ll have at least one.” Then I look at him and my eyes flick to his lips for a fraction of a second, but I know he notices because he’s smirking at me again. So, I blink and exhale, and then I lean toward him and whisper next to his ear. “I’m going to kiss you now.” I pull back and wink before pressing my lips to his.

“Thank you for the warning,” he whispers as I pull away. “I might have died of shock otherwise. Good shock, but still shock.”

I chuckle. “That’s why I did it. I didn’t want to murder you. Like I said.” Then I turn to my locker and I’m not even thinking about the crowded hallway. I’m just hyperaware that Benji is still standing there, leaning against the lockers next to mine, smirking at me. Once I have my bag packed for the morning, I turn to look at him and he’s smiling at me in a way I don’t understand. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

He shrugs a little. “You amaze me,” he says simply. “Last night you were so scared that you wanted another week to think about it and today you’re kissing me in what is probably the most crowded hallway at Creekwood. I just don’t understand, I guess.”

I bite my lip and evaluate his face for a second. “Like I said last night. I think your lips might be made of magic… and possibly magnets. It would be next to impossible to not kiss you. I mean, I’ve wanted to since I met you, but now that I know what I’ve been missing, it’s impossible to not want more.” I shrug, but he’s staring at me with this weird little smile on his face. “What?”

He shakes his head. “I told you no one would boo,” he whispers as he grabs my hand and pulls me off toward his locker.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victor's POV
> 
> Victor meets Lucy. Andrew is being weird.

We stop in front of his locker and he drops my hand but stares at my face for as second. “Lucy is going to show up any minute, so we need to figure out what I’m telling her.”

“What d’you mean?”

“I mean… clearly you’re out now,” he says. “I mean, after that display,” he adds with a wink. “Um, I just mean… she’s the type that’s going to… ask questions.”

“What kind of questions? I told my friends everything that happened last night. Well, I did not reiterate most of our conversation, but I definitely told them there was kissing and I might have mentioned the thing about your lips being magic,” I say with a chuckle. “Uh, only Felix knows about the subsequent texting though.”

He chuckles a little. “Okay. I need to ask you about something you said last night later, but right now. We need to handle Lucy, because we have less than a minute until she shows up,” he says, looking at his watch

“Tell her whatever you want, Benji," I say. “I really don’t care who knows what anymore.”

“Okay, I guess I need to be more straightforward. She’s going to ask if we’re together… dating… whatever. I don’t know that answer.”

“Oh,” I say, my eyes go wide. “Uh…”

“Talk to me, Vic, this is not the time to be indecisive,” he says and he looks toward the opposite end of the hall. “She’s literally coming and when she sees you, she’s going to start running. So...”

“Yes,” I say. “Yeah.”

He chuckles. “Okay,” he says and then he grabs my hand and without thinking, I kiss him again and he chuckles again as we pull apart and I hear a girl’s voice shriek his name.

“BENJI!”

“I am pre-emptively sorry about her,” he says, looking at me for a second before turning to where Lucy has arrived with a sigh. “Morning, Lucy.”

Her eyes go wide and she stares at our interconnected hands and I can’t help but laugh. She and Lake will _really_ get along. “Hi,” I say, because honestly the staring at our hands is getting a little weird. She shakes her head as she pops back to reality and half-smiles at me for a second. Clearly beyond confused. Then she turns back to Benji.

“BENJAMIN,” she says emphatically.

“Lucy, can you not?”

She sighs and makes some sort of weird hand gesture. I get the feeling she’s more than a little overwhelmed. “I don’t hear from you _all night_ ,” she says, “and then… then…” she trails off and just gestures to our interconnected hands with both of hers while staring at him incredulously.

“You missed the best part,” he says with a little laugh.

She throws her hands up and is clearly struggling for words. “What the hell!?!”

He’s laughing so hard his free hand comes up to cover his mouth and it makes me laugh too, because this is actually kind of priceless even if I don’t know this girl. She’s not laughing, just staring back and forth between us until we calm down.

“What’s the best part?” I ask, tilting my head at him even though I definitely know what he’s talking about. He snorts a laugh and then briefly presses his lips to mine before turning back to Lucy who is now openly gaping at us and I can’t help but laugh again.

“I need the full story at lunch. I don’t have time for this. I have a French test first period and honestly, I don’t know how I’m even expected to focus enough to think about another language right now when I can barely use English.”

Benji laughs openly. “This is actually hilarious,” he says.

“It is,” I agree. “Much better than over the phone with Lake and Mia last night. And her reactions are _so_ much better than Felix and Pilar.”

He chuckles. “I believe that,” he says and then he sighs and looks at Lucy. “Okay, get it out of your system. Let’s go.”

“You said he wasn’t out.”

“He wasn’t,” Benji says.

“But he is now?”

“Apparently,” Benji says. He squeezes my hand. “Oh, by the way, even though you both know each other’s names. Victor, this my best friend, Lucy.” He takes a deep breath. "Um… Lucy, my… boyfriend, Victor.”

“WHAT!?!” she shouts and flails again and I laugh. “You can’t just… just throw that word around, Benji. I have a heart, you know. You’re actually trying to murder me now.”

He rolls his eyes. “Anything else?”

“What _the hell_ happened last night?”

“Lunch,” he says.

“My friends already know,” I say, thinking out loud. “Uh, but I bet Lake would _love_ to hear your perspective.” I roll my eyes and laugh.

“Valid. Uh, yeah. So… Lucy and I will join you guys for Lunch today?”

I nod. “I’m sure they’ll be over the moon with this arrangement.”

He chuckles. “Valid.”

“At least your friend doesn’t show up when we’re both trying to work and sit in the corner for three-and-a-half hours,” I say with a little snort.

“True,” he says and then he turns back to Lucy. “I’m proud of you.”

“What?”

I laugh. “Uh, my friends… and my sister… decided it was the best idea ever to sit in the corner of the café all night and harass us.”

“They were _not_ harassing us,” Benji says. “They were mostly just embarrassing you.”

I sigh. “True. Anyway, it was nice to meet you, Lucy. I need to get to gym,” I say and then I kiss Benji again and wink at him before pulling my hand out of his and turning around to walk toward the locker rooms.

I almost forget about having to deal with Andrew, until he’s in front of me as I enter the locker room. He’s giving me a look that definitely means he either saw or heard about what happened this morning in the hallway. And honestly, I don’t care, but I also don’t want to deal with his bullshit. “Andrew,” I say, turning my back on him to open my locker.

“Salazar,” he says. “What the hell?”

“What d’you mean?”

“I mean. You broke up with Mia on Sunday and then this morning you’re wandering all over Creekwood kissing someone else.”

I snort. “That’s one way to put it. Believe me, Mia’s elated by this development. Feel free to ask her. She also knew about it last night.” He stares at me without saying anything. “Andrew… I broke up with her because I’m gay. That’s why we’re still friends. Can you just… stop staring at me like that?”

He stares for another second and then rolls his head around. “Okay…” He doesn’t say another word other than grunting and shouting to pass him the ball during class. When we’re back in the locker room he gives me a weird look again and I put my hands up.

“What is your problem, Andrew? I don’t have the energy to deal with this today. I literally didn’t sleep last night and that cold brew is only gonna get me so far. So, figure it out and stop looking at me like that,” I say and then I turn to my locker to change back into my regular clothes.

I’m throwing my backpack over my shoulder when someone clears their throat behind me. I take a deep breath, slam my locker shut and turn around. It’s Andrew, because of course it is. “What do you want?”

“Look. I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t know what to say. I don’t know what to say. I was just… shocked? You don’t… You never… I never realized…”

I exhale sharply. “Listen, Andrew. I don’t care what you think. I really don’t. Thank you for attempting to apologize, but I’m gonna go now,” I say and then I turn my back on him and walk out the door. Benji is waiting for me outside the locker room. He’s leaning against the wall and he smiles at me when our eyes meet. I smile back and laugh a little. “Hi again,” I say as I reach him.

“Hi,” he says and grabs my hand, turning to start walking. “How was gym?”

I shrug. “Andrew’s being weird, but whatever,” I say rolling my eyes. As we round the corner, I see Lake and Mia across the hall and then must see us because in an instant they’re parting the red sea to get to us. “Good morning,” I tell them.

Lake looks at me, our conjoined hands, and then Benji for a second before shifting her eyes back to my face with this look of amazement. “Hi.”

“Lake, I literally told you what happened last night, you don’t have to look at us like that.”

“Sorry,” she says, shaking herself a little. “It’s one thing to hear it, it’s another thing to see it!” And then she squeals and I sort of want to die.

“Can you not?” I ask her.

“Sorry,” she says again.

“Wait,” I realize suddenly and turn to Benji. “What did you want to ask me about earlier… before Lucy showed up?”

He chuckles. “I’ll ask you at lunch. I’m sure everyone wants that story.”

I close my eyes and groan. “I thought I was done with the people embarrassing me.”

“Not a chance,” he whispers and then he kisses my cheek and I giggle.

“You just giggled,” Mia says and I roll my eyes at her. She shrugs. “Just making sure you were aware.”

“Have you seen Felix?” Lake asks.

“Not since before first period, why?”

“Uh…” she glances at Benji.

“He knows,” I say.

“Oh. Uh, I… wanted to ask him to come over after school. My mom said she’s going to be late getting home…”

Mia and I both laugh. “He’ll say yes,” I tell her.

She sort of shrugs and smiles. “I know.”

“Oh, Mia… Andrew’s being really weird,” I say.

“What d’you mean?”

“I think he thought he was defending your honor or something,” I say chuckling.

She rolls her eyes. “What happened?”

“I don’t know if he saw or just heard about this,” I say pulling Benji’s hand into the air for a second. “But uh, he seemed to think it was rude of me to be kissing someone else so soon after breaking up with you.”

She laughs. “Oh, Andrew,” she says with a sigh. “What did you tell him?”

“I told him that you were elated by this development and he could ask you if he didn’t believe me,” I say and she laughs. “And he was still looking at me weird and not saying anything, so I told him that we broke up because I’m gay and told him to stop staring at me. He was really weird all through class and then he tried to apologize in the locker room. I don’t even know, but he’s being really weird.”

“I _am_ elated by this development,” she says, putting her hand on top our conjoined hands for a second. “And… I’ll deal with Andrew.”


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victor's POV
> 
> The rest of the morning.

When I walk into Health, everyone is already there. Mia smiles at me as I sit down. “Uh, Andrew,” she says a moment later. He turns around to her. “I hear you were giving Victor a hard time.”

He glances at me and then back to her. “Uh. I _did_ apologize.”

“Right, well, just want to make sure you don’t think you need to defend my honor or something. I am over the moon elated for Victor and Benji. I actually think it’s adorable that they’ve said ‘fuck it, let’s make out in the hallways.’ But yeah. No need to give him a hard time, okay?”

Andrew nods and turns around without saying anything. Ms. Thomas walks in a second later and starts class. No one risks taking their phone out today. The bell rings and I’m throwing my backpack over my shoulder when Felix catches my elbow. “What’s up?” I ask, turning around to him.

“What did Andrew say? He wasn’t…”

I snort. “No. He was seriously just defending Mia’s honor or something. He seemed to think it was inappropriate that I was kissing someone else so soon after we broke up. He didn’t even mention the fact that that someone was a guy, oddly. I’m the one that brought that up.”

“Weird. I would have pegged him for, uh… well.”

I nod. “Same. Did Lake talk to you yet?” He tilts his head. “She said something about asking you to come over after school…”

“Oh! I didn’t know everyone knew about that. Yes.”

I chuckle, “I’m happy for you, buddy. I just wish she’d you know… not be so absurd about the whole other people knowing thing.” We’re walking toward the door and I see Benji already waiting. I roll my eyes. “Hi again. I did tell you this is unnecessary, right?”

“Am I annoying you?” he asks. “I can walk by myself.”

“No,” I say with a sigh. “It’s just funny. It’s cute,” I say and then I kiss his cheek. “You’re cute.” He smiles at me for a second and then grabs my hand. “See you at lunch!” I call over my shoulder toward Felix. He waves in response as he chases after Lake (and Mia).

Benji squeezes my hand and I look at him. He smiles at me and I smile back. Everything is so perfect. “No one’s given you a hard time, right?” he asks.

I shake my head. “Not at all. At least, not that I’ve noticed.”

He nods. “Told you, it’d be okay.”

“You did,” I agree. “Thanks.” We fall silent as we walk. He stops outside my fourth period class and I chuckle. “I hate Algebra, so much,” I say.

“Wanna skip?” he asks with a wink.

“Benji…”

He shrugs. “I have art. Mr. Taylor wouldn’t even notice I was missing.”

“I’ve never skipped class in my life,” I say.

“There’s a first time for everything,” he says and I can’t tell if he’s serious or not. I don’t know what to say and he doesn’t say anything either, but then he winks at me. “I’m just saying,” he says finally.

“You’re serious, aren’t you?”

He smirks and shrugs a little. “If you want me to be.”

“Okay,” I say.

“Okay, you’re skipping class or…”

I shrug. “Like you said. First time for everything.”

“None of your friends are in that class, right?”

I shake my head. “You’ll get an attendance point, but if you’ve never skipped before they won’t actually do anything,” he says and then he pulls me back the way we came from. When I realize we’re in the art hallway, I tilt my head at him.

“I thought you were skipping, too. Was that not the whole reason I agreed to this?”

He chuckles. “I am,” he nods to a classroom as we pass. “That’s my class.”

“So… where are we going?”

“You’ll see.” He pulls me down to the very end of the hall, looks around for a second and then opens a door without a window labeled “ART SUPPLIES”. He closes the door behind up and pulls me toward the back of the room. It’s dark, but I can still see him. “Welcome to every art student’s, skipping class hide out,” he says with a wink.

“Aren’t you worried, someone else will come in here?”

He shakes his head. “When I say every art student, I mean there’s like 4 of us that come in here instead of going to class and they’re all in my class this period and never skip art. I think I’m the only one that actually uses this place to skip art classes.”

“But what if someone needs something from in here.”

He laughs. “Stop worrying so much. No one comes in here during the day. Students after school and teachers before school. It’s always deserted during the day,” he promises. “Now will you stop worrying and kiss me?”

I laugh, but nod and then our lips meet and I don’t actually care about any of it anymore. All I care about is that I never want to stop kissing him. Once neither of us can breathe properly, we reluctantly pull apart, our foreheads pressed together. I stare at his face and try to catch my breath. He reaches his hand up to run his thumb over my cheek and I smile at him. “This was definitely the best decision I’ve made in a while,” he says.

I chuckle. “Gonna have to agree. Kissing you instead of doing Algebra is definitely the best decision.”

“We probably shouldn’t make a habit of this,” he says quietly.

I sigh. “Probably not, but…” he looks sat me as I trail off. I wink. “We should definitely take advantage of already being here.” He doesn’t say anything, but presses his lips back to mine. There’s something about the way he kisses or at least the way he kisses me that makes my heart flutter uncontrollably. His hand is on the back of my neck, pulling my lips tighter to his. Then at some point, his tongue is my mouth and then he’s nibbling on my bottom lip and my lips are starting to go numb. I could kiss him like this forever.

He pulls away from the kiss and I whine a little. He chuckles and smirks at me for a second before leaning forward and kissing my neck instead. I have no idea what he’s doing, but it feels amazing. I think I must moan out loud because he chuckles and pulls away to smirk at me. “I’m sorry,” he whispers.

“Why on earth are you apologizing?”

He chuckles again. “Uh… that’s probably gonna bruise,” he says and runs his fingers over the spot on my neck where his lips just were.

“Oh.” I shrug and wrap my arms around him. We’re quiet for a minute, just standing there in the dark supply closet with our arms around each other. “I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy,” I say after a while.

“Me either,” he says and I feel him nuzzle his face against my neck. And that’s when the bell rings. We both jump and then look at each other and laugh. “Guess we should go to lunch,” he says and I nod.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victor's POV
> 
> Lunch Time!

We’re almost to the cafeteria when someone I don’t recognize is staring at us and I suddenly feel self-conscious until he says Benji’s name. “You missed class,” the guy comments as he falls into step on Benji’s other side.

“I did,” Benji says.

“Taylor didn’t even notice.”

“I figured. He usually doesn’t. As long as I get my projects in on time,” Benji says and he shrugs.

The guy leans around Benji, looks at our hands again and then looks at me. “Weren’t you dating Mia Brooks?”

“I was,” I say.

“And now…”

“He’s my boyfriend,” Benji says. “And it’s really none of your business, Mark.”

“Geez, fine,” Mark says.

“What did I miss in class?”

“Not much. Taylor put some shitty 70s music on and let us work on our projects. I had my headphones in. Listened to actual music instead,” he says, chuckling.

Benji rolls his eyes. “Mr. Taylor’s music isn’t that bad, dude.” We walk toward the courtyard. “Oh,” Benji says when he realizes Mark is still following us. “Um, Lucy and I are sitting with Victor and his friends today…”

“Oh. Uh, yeah, alright. I’ll go find Parker,” Mark says and he walks away.

Benji rolls his eyes and looks at me. “Mark’s fine. He’s in my art class. He just gets invasive. He thinks we’re really good friends or something just because I eat lunch with him a couple times a week.”

I nod. “I get that,” I say as we step outside. I look around and then point. “There.” I pull him by the hand over to a table where Lake and Mia are already sitting. “Hey!” I say and they look up. Lake looks a little too excited. “Calm yourself,” I tell her before she can even speak as Benji and I sit down next to them.

“Your class is around the corner for the cafeteria,” Mia says. “You’re always the first one here.” She’s looking at me suspiciously.

“I’m a bad influence,” Benji admits. “We skipped fourth period.”

Mia and Lake both gape at us. “And what did you do instead of going to Algebra?” Mia asks. I hear Benji chuckle and when I glance at him it’s obvious that he’s not going to answer this one for me. I take a deep breath and exhale loudly through my nose.

“Made out with my boyfriend it the art supply closet,” I say as casually as possible, even though I can feel my face burning. They’re both gaping again and I wink before I start laughing and I can hear Benji laughing, too.

“You two look like you just saw a ghost,” Pilar says as she sits down. They don’t react. “Are… are you okay?” She waves her hand in front of their faces and then turns to me. “What happened?”

I’m about to tell her when I notice Felix a few steps away. “Felix is almost here, we’ll see if you two can top that reaction,” I say nodding toward Lake and Mia who still haven’t moved. Lake is now sputtering gibberish.

Felix sits down and looks at Lake. “Uh, Lake?” he says. I don’t know if he doesn’t notice Mia or if he doesn’t care but he starts waving his hand in front of Lake’s face. “Helloooo?” he says and then he looks at me. “What happened?”

I close my eyes and try not laugh. “Benji’s a bad influence,” I say, nudging him with my elbow. “We skipped fourth period.”

“That's why they’re like that?” Pilar asks.

I shake my head. “It was the answer to what I did instead of going to Algebra that caused that reaction.”

She tilts her hands up. “So… what did you do instead of going to Algebra?”

“Made out with my boyfriend in the art supply closet,” I say again. This time I don’t even blush, I just start laughing because now all four of them are staring at us. I still don’t know if it’s the word boyfriend or the skipping class to make out in the art supply closet that’s caused this reaction, but it’s honestly the best thing.

“Lucy!” Benji says suddenly, waving her down.

“Oh! There you are,” she says as she slides onto the bench with Pilar next to Benji.

I realize everyone has no idea who she is because they’re all staring. I chuckle. “Uh, this is Benji’s best friend, Lucy,” I say gesturing and then I look at her before gesturing as I go around. “My friends: Mia, Lake, and Felix, and my sister, Pilar.”

“Oh!” she says happily, half-waving at their still shocked faces. “You owe me an explanation, sir,” she says poking Benji’s shoulder and he laughs.

“Right, uh… they all apparently heard this last night, but here we are,” he says glancing at everyone else.

“Oooh! Victor said he’d only tell us once!” Lake says, waking up from her daze. “Do we get hear your side now!?”

Benji rolls his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. I guess so.”

But before he can start, Andrew walks over and I groan as I look up at him. “What do you want, Andrew?”

“Geez,” he says. “So hostile. I said I was sorry,” and then he turns to Mia. “Uh, Mia…”

“You’re sort of interrupting something, Andrew. What do you want?”

“Oh, uh, I was gonna ask if I could sit with you today…”

“Why are you asking me? There’s 7 people at this table.”

He shrugs. “I figured you were most likely to say yes.”

“Why do you want to sit with us?” Mia asks.

“Teddy and Kieran are skipping lunch to practice in the music room. Didn’t wanna sit alone,” he says. “So, can I sit here?”

Mia looks at me and Benji. “That’s up to them,” she says. “It’s their lives that are about to spilled out. Because you are _not_ taking that joy from us.”

I can’t help but laugh. Andrew’s eyes go wide and he kind of turns to me. “Salazar?”

I groan a little and look at Benji. “Thoughts?”

He shrugs. “If you don’t care, I don’t.”

“Fine, sit down. Let’s get this over with.” Andrew sits in the only remaining seat; sharing a bench with Felix, next to Pilar. Then all attention is back on Benji.

“You were about to say?” Lucy prompts. And it’s really clear that she doesn’t even care about the rest of us or anything that just happened. She just wants her explanation.

Benji sighs. “Um, how much detail did you give them?” he asks me, nodding.

I shrug. “None about our conversation last night. I did tell them about the Instagram thing and what you overheard and, uh, your lips being made of magic,” I say with a wink.

“Lips being made of magic!” Lucy says. “Start there. I need that story.”

I laugh. “But that’s almost at the end of the story,” I whine. “You need context.”

Benji chuckles. “I thought I was telling the story?” he asks, nudging me with his elbow.

“You are. I’m just saying, if you tell her that part it ruins the first part.”

“But she already saw us kissing, so doesn’t that ruin it just as much?”

“Okay, true, whatever,” I say. “I’m gonna be quiet now.”

“Alright. He _is_ right, Luc, that’s totally the end of the story. Let us go back to Saturday night instead…” he says.

I chuckle. “You didn’t even tell her _that_ part?”

“I thought you were being quiet?”

I sigh. “Right, right.”

“Um, we were in Willacoochee,” Benji says. “And, uh, we ended up staying overnight because the machine wasn’t done in time.”

I swallow, and glance at Mia who smirks and then mouths _he doesn’t know_. I shake my head. She sucks her lips in and nods.

“Uh, that was sort of a last-minute surprise, actually…” he chuckles and then leans to whisper in my ear. “Actually, I should tell you about that later, remind me.” I nod and he turns back to Lucy. “But we were hanging out and airing our dirtiest laundry apparently. Uh, yeah, so we were talking and then Victor came out to me and said I was the first person he’d actually told.”

“You were. The only other person that knew only knew because I couldn’t shut up about you,” I say.

“Wait! Who else knew?” Pilar asks.

“Uh, Simon,” I say. She gives me a look. “Uh, it’s kind of a long story, but he’s like… my gay guru or something. I don’t know. I can explain later.”

Lucy is giving Benji a look. He rolls his eyes. “He’s talking about Simon Spier,” he says and Lake gasps, so I look at her.

“How do you even…”

“Victor slid into Simon’s DMs after his chaotic first day at Creekwood. Thanks to story time with Ms. Albright,” Benji say and Lake’s still gaping at me. “Anyway, back to _my_ story,” he says, chuckling. “Uh, anyway, so we came home Sunday. Victor told… all of them… other than Andrew, but you could probably assume that.”

“Technically, _I_ didn’t tell Lake. Mia did.”

He chuckles. “Okay, okay. Details. Anyway. I broke up with Derek because he’s a fucking asshole and I should have done that a long time ago. Then later Sunday night, Victor was apparently creeping my Instagram when Felix startled him into double tapping a picture from 2014,” he says and I about die. That was an unnecessary detail. “Yesterday in school, Victor nearly literally ran me over trying to leave the locker room after first period.”

I glance across the table “Thanks, Andrew.”

“What?”

“I was trying to get away you, dumbass.”

“Oh.”

“Then you were present for what happened at lunch,” he says.

“Anyway,” Benji says. “Um, we worked last night. Victor came in dead on his feet. And maybe 15 minutes after him, those two showed up,” he says, nodding toward Lake and Mia, “and stayed all night. And I eventually figured out that they’d been bugging him about _me_ all day and I told him about you,” he says and Lucy laughs.

“If all of us could see it so quickly, why couldn’t you two,” she says.

Benji rolls his eyes and I lean against his shoulder. “I asked him about the Instagram thing and he avoided the question by going to talk to Lake and Mia,” Benji says with a chuckle.

“You said you were going to pretend you didn’t see it,” I groan.

“You knew I wasn’t actually going to do that, right?”

I roll my eyes. “Kinda, yeah.”

He chuckles again. “Anyway, he went and talked to them and I watched and I could tell they were harassing him and he was getting frustrated. By the end they were talking loud enough I heard the whole conversation.” I groan. He laughs. “I believe Lake said something along the lines of ‘go back to your future boyfriend’,” he says and glances at her. She nods fervently and I groan again. “I mean… she was right,” he says and I sigh and then laugh.

“She was,” I agree.

“Victor told me they weren’t leaving and I should just go ahead and embarrass him about the Instagram thing and get it over with. He told me it was Felix’s fault which is kind of hilarious. And then Felix and Pilar showed up to join Lake and Mia.”

Lucy nods. “Wish I would have known. Invite me next time,” she says and winks toward Lake and Mia. “Harassing Benji is my favorite pastime.”

Benji rolls his eyes again. “When I went on break, Lake came up to the counter and talked to Victor…which neither of them knew I could hear. I hadn’t made it far enough away yet, and I was curious,” he says, shrugging. “So, I stopped and listened. She was being invasive. He threated to tell everyone about her and Felix,” he says and then he realizes what he just said and turns around to them. “I’m sorry I just said that. I was _not_ thinking.”

“Lake and Lone Stone?” Andrew says with raises eyebrows.

Lake puts her face in her hands and sighs loudly.

“Fuck. I’m sorry,” Benji says again.

Lake groans. “It’s fine. Whatever. Yeah, Andrew, but shush, okay? I was enjoying this story,” she says and turns back to Benji. The look on Felix’s face is priceless. He definitely was not expecting her to let that go so easily.

“Right, anyway. Lake finally left him alone and I went to take my break. When I got back I told him I heard that… He said he hated them all for what was probably at least the third time last night. He took his break and went to sit with them for a minute before someone clearly said something to make him mad and he fled into the backroom. They didn’t leave until 8:45 and then we closed up.”

“I’m not following how this leads to kissing in the hallways,” Lucy says and I laugh.

“I’m not done yet,” Benji tells her.

“Oh! Okay,” she says.

“I waited until we were wiping down the last of the tables,” he says, “and then I told him Lake was right.”

“About what?”

“Me liking him. So, I asked him some questions that he’d told Lake weren’t her business, because they weren't and said I wanted them to be my business and he was a completely oblivious dork, so I kissed him.”

“Awwwwww,” she says and clutches her chest.

“Anyway, we talked about a lot of things that don’t need repeating and decided to revisit the topic of him coming out in a week,” he says and Lucy raises an eyebrow. “That’s when the whole thinking my lips are magical comes into play,” he says. “Uh, after we locked up, we were standing outside and he said he wanted to kiss me again and I told him it was a bad idea.”

“You WHAT!?!”

“I told him it would cloud his judgment re: coming out. But he said he wanted to kiss me so bad that he was willing to do just about anything including coming out.”

“Oh my God,” she whispers and looks at me.

“And… he convinced me with the most adorable puppy eyes I’ve ever seen.” I can feel myself blushing when he says this. “So we kissed again and then he said he was going to go tell him parents… and then he kissed me again and said he thought my lips were made of magic and then we went home.”

“Your lips _are_ made of magic,” I insist, “and magnets. I can’t not kiss you. It’s impossible.” I lean my head against his shoulder and he sighs, squeezing my hand.

“Then he showed up at school and kissed me this morning,” Benji concludes with a shrug.

“Okay, that is the most adorable story I’ve ever heard,” Lucy says. “And I’m already a thousand percent sure he’s so much better than you-know-who. Just look at the way he looks at you, Benji. Honestly, I’m so happy for you I could scream.”

“Oh! I just remembered. I meant to ask you about something you texted me last night,” Benji says suddenly, turning to me. “You said your parents know I exist now. What does that even mean?”

I groan. “Uh, Pilar, a little help?” I say, looking at her.

She laughs. “Mami asked if there was a boy they should know about,” she says, shrugging.

“And you laughed your ass off,” I accuse.

“Might have,” she says.

“But yeah…”

“So, what did you tell her?” he asks.

“Um, your name. That they’ve met you which I had to explain and then I tried to divert the conversation to the fact that Pilar was part of a posse that spent all night annoying the crap out of me while I was working, but that didn’t work. They asked vaguely what was going on and at the time I didn’t really have an answer so I told them we hadn’t talked about it yet and then my mom came out with the ‘I want to meet him’ thing and thusly we are taking pre-dance pictures at my apartment on Friday.” I say and then I sigh. “And you’re all coming,” I say pointing to Mia, Lake, and Felix. “I am not subjecting Benji to just my family. It is _not_ happening.”

“So, you’re going to the dance together?” Lake asks and I smirk.

“I did in fact say yes when asked,” Benji says with a wink.

“Which caused me to literally not sleep last night,” I add.

“Victor…” he says.

“I know, I know, but I couldn’t sleep after that. I couldn’t.” I smile at him for a second and then I turn back to everyone else. “Do any of y’all even have dates?” I ask when I suddenly realize and then I freeze because Felix is planning to ask Lake, so maybe I should have asked. But they all shrug and say no. “Not even you, Andrew? That’s surprising.”

“Teddy, Kieran, and I are all going alone so we can laugh at all the couples,” he says.

I roll my eyes and finally everyone’s talking about the dance instead of my love life. After a few seconds of the conversation calming down, Benji kisses my cheek and I turn to smile at him; he smiles back.


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victor's POV
> 
> After School/Victor works

After last period, I find Benji waiting by my locker. “Hey,” he says as I walk over.

“Hey,” I say. I smile and kiss him briefly. Then I open my locker and shove all of my homework into my backpack. He chuckles as he watches me and I roll my eyes at him. “What?”

“Nothing,” he says, shrugging. “Do you have basketball today?”

“No,” I say and then I put my backpack over my shoulder and close my locker. “But I work three to seven. You’re off, right?”

He nods and grabs my hand. “What time is your curfew?”

“Ten…”

He shrugs a little. “Can we go to dinner after you work? Like an actual date?”

I smirk at him and nod. “Yeah, okay.”

“Where do you want to go?”

I shrug. “I honestly don’t know much here… so, up to you. You’ve got 4 hours to figure it out, so good luck!” I say with a chuckle.

We exit the school and I start to let go of his hand, but he holds on tighter. “I have to go to work,” I say.

“I know. I’m going to come hang out.”

“Why on earth would you want to hang out there when you’re not working?”

He chuckles. “There’s this really cute barista that I’m going to ogle all night,” he says with a wink. I groan. “Hey, the really cute barista happens to be my boyfriend, so I am one hundred percent allowed to ogle him.”

I laugh. “You’re ridiculous.” We’re almost to Brasstown when I realize something. “Wait, are we going to get in trouble?”

“For what?”

“I mean… Aren’t there usually rules against dating co-workers… especially when one of you is the assistant manager?” I say, biting my lip and look at him.

He actually laughs. “Brasstown doesn’t care.”

“Are you sure?”

“He nods. I think we have to sign some sort of weird paper, and I think technically we’re not allowed to like kiss or whatever while we’re working, but other than that…”

“Well, that sounds terrible,” I say.

He laughs. “When Sarah’s not around, I’m in charge, and I am definitely not enforcing that rule,” he says with a wink.

When we walk in, Sarah’s at the counter and Megan is making a drink. “Hey!” I say, going to drop Benji’s hand. He laughs and squeezes my hand and walks with me to the counter.

“Benji, what are you doing here?” Sarah says.

“Just hanging out,” he says and then he drops my hand.

Sarah looks at our now separate hands for a second and then back to our faces. “What the hell?” she says and Benji laughs.

“Not exactly the reaction I anticipated, but sure, we’ll go with it,” he says and then he kisses my cheek and turns to find a table.

“Oh, no, you don’t,” Sarah says and puts a hand on his shoulder. “Both of you, my office, now.” I look at Benji; he looks at me and shrugs, but grabs my hand and pulls me toward Sarah’s office. Sarah meanwhile looks at Megan, “I will send Victor out to you in a few minutes,” she says. “I’m sorry.”

Megan shrugs. “It’s fine.”

“I thought you said we weren’t going to be in trouble,” I whisper to Benji while we’re waiting for Sarah to join us in her office.

He shrugs. “I don’t think we are.”

Sarah walks in with a heavy sigh and collapse behind her desk. “Sit!” she says, gesturing to the chairs across from her. We look at each other and sit down. She rummages through a large drawer of papers and comes back with two. She puts one in front of each of us and hands us each a pen. “Sign,” she says.

“What are we signing?” I ask.

She sighs. “You can date. We can’t stop you. But if you break up and can’t work together, whoever is leaving still has to give a full two weeks of notice before leaving. No affectionate behaviors while you’re on the clock and preferably not in the store while you’re wearing your work shirts. If one of you is working and the other is not, same rules apply as dating civilians. Which you both know about already. Sign,” she says again.

I sigh and sign the form. “Thank you,” she says as she pulls them back. “Now, you,” she says looking at me. “Go clock in and get out there. And you,” she turns to Benji. “Go home.”

“Why?” he asks.

“What are you doing here anyway?”

He shrugs. “I was going to hang out until Victor gets off so we could go to dinner,” he says.

“Fine, but… don’t distract him.”

Benji chuckles. “Okay.”

“Get out of my office,” she says and shoos us toward the door.

We look at each other and shrug for a second and then I follow Benji out of the office. “Told you we weren’t in trouble,” he says as he closes the door behind us. “I’m gonna go find a table,” he says and then he kisses my cheek, winks, and heads out the side door near the bathrooms.

I sigh and put my backpack in my locker and tie on my apron before clocking in and head out to the counter. “So, what was that about?” Megan asks.

“What?”

“Sarah. What did she want with you guys?”

“Uh… we had to sign HR papers,” I say shrugging.

“Why?”

Before I can answer, Benji appears at the register. “Make me a latte?” he asks with a cheesy smile.

I roll my eyes. “Yeah, alright, but you have to pay for it. Sarah’s here and I’m not getting in trouble.” He laughs and pulls out his wallet as Megan steps up to the register and I go to make his drink.

After Megan, takes his payment they both walk toward me. Benji stands at the pick-up counter and smirks at me. Megan is just looking weirdly at both of us. “What?” I ask her as I hand Benji his latte.

“You didn’t answer my question,” she says.

I groan. “What did you ask?” Benji says.

“Why did you have to sign HR papers?”

“Oh!” Benji says with a chuckle. “Um, Sarah might have caught us holding hands.”

"You also kissed my cheek," I remind him. He chuckles again.

Megan raises her eyebrows. “Wait. What?”

I roll my eyes. “We’re…uh, dating?” I say, looking at Benji.

“Technically we haven’t even been on a date yet,” he says. “That’s the plan for tonight. However, yes.”

“Wait, didn’t you have a girlfriend?” she asks, looking at me. “And didn’t you have a boyfriend?” she asks, looking at Benji.

We say “yes” at the same time and chuckle.

“Okay, wow, alright. Not my business,” she says and then she goes to lean against the sink and wait for customers to show up. It’s not as dead as last night. The floor actually has a lot of people sitting around, but no one is currently at the counter.

“You really don’t care where we go?” Benji asks.

I shake my head. “Surprise me,” I say and wink at him. He bites his lip and nods and then walks over to a table where I see his bag waiting. I lean against the doorway and watch as he pulls out his laptop and a notebook. He glances up at me and smiles when our eyes meet. I smile back.

The next two hours sort of drag by. It’s not busy, but it’s not as dead as the night before. Just before five, Whitney shows up for the closing shift with Megan and I duck out to take my break. Benji must see me because I’m barely halfway across the backroom when he appears in the doorway that leads to the bathrooms. I laugh under my breath and smirk at him. “Hey,” I say. “Getting your homework done?”

He laughs and walks forward a few steps until we meet. “I keep getting distracted by this really cute barista. Hard to pay attention to Chemistry when he keeps winking at me across the room.” I laugh and wrap my arms around his shoulders and he wraps his around my waist and then we’re kissing. We’re kissing until someone is clearing their throat behind us. “You literally just signed a paper saying you wouldn’t do that,” Sarah says. I groan.

“I’m not working,” Benji says. “And he’s on his break. You didn’t complain when he was kissing Mia…”

“You’re not a civilian. And if you want to be treated like one, get out of my back room,” she says. She shoos us toward the door.

“Would you really rather us be kissing out on the floor than back here?” he asks. I could never be that bold with Sarah, but I guess Benji’s known her longer.

She rolls her eyes. “Whatever. I’m going home.” She goes out toward the counter and I look back to Benji.

“Where were we?” he says and then he’s kissing me again. When we break apart to catch our breath, he smiles at me and I can’t help but smile back. “I could do that forever,” he says.

I nod. “Yeah, me, too.” Then I remember I’m on my break and pull out my phone to check the time. “Oops. I should get back out there.” He sighs a little but nods and steps away. “Where are we going for dinner anyway?”

He shrugs. “Still haven’t figured that out.”

“Well, work on it, okay?” I say and then I kiss his cheek and turn to go to back to the counter.

“Did you literally spend your entire break kissing Benji in the back room?” Megan says when I get back and I feel my face burning. Whitney stares at her and then at me and then she seems to notice Benji sliding back into his table across the room. He waves when he notices her looking.

“Wait. What?” is all she says and I laugh.

“You missed the whole thing,” Megan says.

“I’m so confused,” Whitney says, shaking her head.

“They’re apparently dating? Sarah made them sign some sort of HR paper earlier,” Megan says shrugging. “Not my business, but it is cute. They’ve been making heart eyes at each other all night,” she says.

“We have not.”

“You definitely have.”

I sigh and look at Benji, he’s smirking at me. I roll my eyes and see him laugh under his breath. I can’t help but smile. He smiles back and then gets to his feet and walks up to the counter. “Everything okay?”

I nod. “Yep, Megan is just insisting we’ve been making heart eyes at each other…”

“We kind of have,” he says.

I roll my eyes and sigh. “Fine. Whatever.”

He laughs. “You’re cute,” he says and then he reaches across the counter and puts his hand on my face. “And Sarah left, so I really don’t care about her rules.” I lean my face against his hand and both Megan and Whitney aww behind me. I tilt my head back and roll my eyes. He laughs. “Okay, I’m gonna stop bugging you. I should actually try to do my homework at some point.”

“And figure out where we’re going for dinner,” I remind him.

“That, too,” he says as he pulls his hand away. I grab his hand before he gets it across the counter and he smirks at me. “I’ll be right over there,” he says with a chuckle.

“I know,” I say. “I just like holding your hand.”

He twines our fingers together for a second. “I like holding your hand, too,” he says with a wink and then he squeezes my hand once before letting go and going back to his table. I stare after him for a second until he sits down and smirks at me. I chuckle a little as the bell on the door rings.

“Okay, but that was the cutest thing I’ve ever seen,” Megan says when I turn around.

I roll my eyes. “Thanks?”

She chuckles and goes to take the customer’s order. Whitney smiles. “So when did that happen?”

“Huh?”

“You and Benji…”

“Oh, uh, last night, I guess.”

“Wait, didn’t you guys close together last night?”

I chuckle. “We did.”

“So… it happened here?” she says.

“Are you two going to talk about Victor and Benji’s love life or help make drinks?” Megan says, turning around.

“Sorry!” Whitney says walking toward the espresso machine. “What do we need?”

Megan relays the order to us and Whitney and I start making the drinks. The last two hours of my shift are pretty busy. Whitney ducks out to take her break at 6:45 so she can be back before I leave and there’s finally no customers waiting.

“So…” Megan says, turning to me. “What happened last night?”

I chuckle and shrug. “We were closing and talking and then there was kissing and here we are?” She tilts her head at me and I shrug.

“But you had a girlfriend… and didn’t he have a boyfriend?”

“I did. He did. We both broke up with them for different reasons on Sunday.”

“Oh,” she says and then she looks away for a second and then back to me. “Not that it’s any of my business, but are you… like are you bi… or?”

I exhale loudly through my nose. “Uh, no. I’m… I’m gay… I was just… trying not to be.”

“Oh,” she says and then she shrugs. “Okay.”

I look back toward Benji and he’s giving me a weird look. I smile at him and he bites his lip for a second before smiling back. He glances down at his laptop screen and then his eyes go wide as he looks up and smirks at me while wiggling his eyebrows. He winks and then he starts clean up his stuff. I glance at the clock on the wall. It’s almost 7. Whitney should be back any minute.

When Whitney does get back and I immediately say goodbye and duck into the back room. I’m pulling my backpack onto my shoulder when I hear a chuckle in the doorway. I look up to find Benji smirking at me. “Hi,” I say as I walk over to him.

“Hey,” he says. He kisses me as soon as I’m close enough.

“So, did you figure out where we’re going?”

“Hmm,” he says as he wraps his arms around me. “I was just thinking… I’d kind of like to spend the rest of the night kissing you.”

I laugh a little. “I could go for that,” I say and then I kiss him again. “What are you thinking?”

He smiles at me. “Uh, would you want to just come over to my house?”

I swallow. “Um, your parents?”

He chuckles. “They won’t care. It’s actually kind of funny, they were almost as excited as Lucy when they found out I broke up with Derek.”

“Really?”

“Apparently, _everyone_ hated him,” he says shrugging. “It kind of seems like _he_ might have been their problem with me being gay.”

“What d’you mean?”

“I mean, when they found out, my mom said something along the lines of ‘Good. Now you can find a boy that’ll actually treat you right.’ And my dad agreed and said something like, ‘And one that’s not so old.’”

“Hmm,” I hum, holding him closer. “Okay, I mean… I would definitely prefer kissing you for a couple hours to eating pretty much anything, so I’m in.” He steps away and grabs my hand to pull me toward the exit.


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victor's POV
> 
> Benji's House after work.

When we get outside, I realize I have no idea where Benji lives. “So, where do you live?” I ask as he pulls me toward the crosswalk.

He chuckles and pulls me across the street. “Not far,” he says. “That’s why I started working here; after, uh, the accident my parents made me get a job and this was close and they were hiring.”

“Felix made me stop on my second ever day at Creekwood,” I tell him. “I saw the sign and I needed money for basketball.”

“And then you sprayed us both with foamed milk,” he adds with chuckle.

“I might have been a little nervous.”

“Most people are their first time using the foamer.”

“Yeah, it wasn’t that I was nervous about,” I say and I have no idea why I’m admitting this.

He pauses for a minute and turns to give me a weird look; tilted head and raised eyebrows. “Oh?”

I take a deep breath. “Um, yeah… I, uh…”

“Mr. I do believe in cool kicks…” he says with a wink.

“Why do you remember that?” I groan.

He laughs. “It’s the first conversation I ever had with you. Of course, I remember that.”

Suddenly I remember him telling me to remind him about something at lunch. “You said something at lunch… About Willacoochee?”

“Oh,” he says and he kind of chuckles. “Don’t hate me.”

I raise an eyebrow. “Gonna need more than that.”

He laughs nervously and squeezes my hand in his, “Uh, I might have lied a little.”

“You and me both,” I say.

“Huh?”

“Nope, you first,” I tell him.

“So… Sarah didn’t actually say we should stay overnight. She actually said to go light a fire under Wally’s ass and make sure it was done on Saturday so she’d have it for open on Sunday,” he says, biting his lip.

I smirk. “Uh, that actually makes me feel a lot better?” He raises an eyebrow and I laugh nervously. “Um, the machine was done on Saturday,” I tell him. “Wally called to tell me it was done when we were checking out. But… I didn’t want to go back.”

“Oops,” he says through a chuckle. “I guess we’re even then.”

“And Sarah can never know,” I say.

“Yeah, no way,” he says. “Just like she has no idea I threw away three other applications without even calling them so I could hire you.”

“Wait, seriously?” I ask as he pulls me around a corner.

“Yeah. But hey, it worked out, right?”

“Definitely,” I agree and I grab his arm with my other hand. He chuckles.

“This is me,” he says, pointing toward a house. It’s definitely not as big as Mia’s, but it’s still nice. Nicer than anything I’ve ever lived in. “Goal is to avoid my parents, but I can’t promise anything,” he says as we reach the front door.

He turns the knob and it’s immediately obvious, that goal will be unsuccessful. “Benji?” a woman’s voice calls. “Is that you?”

He groans and glances at me for a second. “Uh, yeah,” he says as he pulls me into the house and closes the door. There’s a little gasp to our left and he groans.

“Who’s this?” his mom says as she walks into the hallway. Tilting her head to look at me.

He takes a deep breath and sighs. “This is Victor,” he says, “my boyfriend.”

She gasps again and puts her hand over her heart. He exhales loud. “Vic, this is my mom.”

“Nice to meet you,” I say, extending my hand toward her.

She shakes my hand and smiles gently. “Yes,” she says and then she turns back to Benji with a look I don’t quite understand, but she’s definitely smiling.

He groans. “Look, I’ll… I’ll talk to you later, okay?” And then he pulls me toward the stairs. His mom doesn’t say anything else and we’re very quickly up the stairs and he’s closing his bedroom door behind us. “Sorry about that.”

I laugh. “It’s fine, honestly. My mom’s going to be _a lot_ worse tomorrow night.”

“Oh?”

“She’s the most embarrassing person on the planet. And it’s a thousand times worse when you give her a camera.”

He chuckles and then gestures toward the room. “Sit if you want,” he says and I finally realize I’m in Benji’s bedroom and my heart does something I’m not prepared for. I try to look around and take in my slightly messy surroundings. “I didn’t know you were coming over, or I would have cleaned up more,” he says and I think he might be embarrassed.

“It’s fine,” I say. “I like it.”

“Yeah?” he says and then his arms are around me from behind and I feel his chin land on my shoulder. I lean my head against his. “I seem to remember something about kissing you instead of dinner…” he mumbles and then his lips are on my neck and _oh_. I realize I must have said something out loud because he’s chuckling at me. “Sorry,” he whispers and then he’s gone and I whirl around to find him. He laughs.

“Come back,” I whine.

He chuckles and goes to sit on the edge of his bed. He opens his arms toward me. “Come here,” he says, wiggling his fingers. I laugh nervously, but go to sit next to him. He wraps his arms around my shoulders and kisses my cheek. “Are you okay?”

I nod. “Perfect.”

He chuckles. “That doesn’t sound very convincing.”

I sigh. “I’m fine, I promise.”

“Talk to me, please? What’s going on in your head?”

I close my eyes and lean my head against his shoulder. “I don’t know. I guess I’m scared?”

“What are you afraid of?” he whispers.

I wrap my arms around him and hold him tight. “I don’t know.”

He breathes a chuckle. “Okay, well, I would really like to kiss you,” he says. I lift my head at look at him. He’s smiling at me. “Is that okay?”

I nod. “Yeah,” I say, almost laughing. “Kissing you is kind of my favorite thing.”

“It’s mine, too,” he whispers and then he presses his lips to mine and all of the worries just melt away. Kissing him is almost too perfect. I feel like this can’t be real; nothing can actually feel this good, but it does. Every time our lips move, it reminds me of how real this is and how I never want it to end. Eventually we have to pull apart to breathe and I realize at some point he must have pulled us backwards across the bed because I’m laying practically on top of him. When I try to move off of him, he locks his arms around my back. “No, stay,” he whispers. And I can’t argue with him so I lay my head on his chest instead.

My phone buzzes in my pocket a second later and I groan as I pull it out. It’s a text from my sister. _Mom and Dad literally didn’t speak at all during dinner and now their fighting. When are you coming home? I thought you were off at 7._

I sigh and drop my phone onto Benji’s chest as I type a reply. _I was off at 7. I’m at Benji’s house. Do I need to come now?_

_If you can. I have Adrian in my room because they’re, uh, yeah. I didn’t mean to interrupt._

_It’s okay. I’ll be there as soon as I can._

I sigh and shove my phone back in my pocket. I nuzzle against Benji’s chest for a second and then I sigh again. “I need to go home.”

“I thought your curfew wasn’t until 10.”

“It’s not, but Pilar said our parents are fighting. It’s bad enough that she has Adrian in her room with her. I need to go.”

“Okay,” he agrees. “I’ll walk you home.”

We get up and he smiles at me. “Ready?”

I nod and pick up my backpack that was at some point discarded on the floor. He laces his fingers through mine and opens the bedroom door. When we get downstairs his mom is standing in a doorway with her arms crossed over her chest, looking at him expectantly. “I’m going to walk Victor home. I’ll be back and we can talk,” he says with a sigh. She nods once and then he opens the front door and gestures for me to go first.

We walk down the drive way in silence, but then I look at him. “Why are you so upset with you mom?” I ask.

He sighs. “I don’t know. I told you how happy she was when I told her I broke up with Derek, right?” I nod. He shrugs. “She’s just being weird. I don’t know what to make of it, yet. She was never that interested in him. She basically pretended he didn't exist.”

“Oh,” I say. “Um, I wanted to ask you something actually.”

“Okay,” he says. “What’s up?”

“Were you and Derek together before… I mean before you came out?”

He nods. “Yeah. Uh, Friday was our one year, like I said. The accident happened last summer, so… there was a couple months.”

“Did your parents just not know?”

He sighs. “Um, they knew about the band, but not about… anything else.”

“Oh,” I say and then I fall quiet.

“Everything okay?” he asks a few seconds later.

“Yeah,” I say, shrugging. He pulls me to a stop because I know he doesn’t believe me. I turn around to face him. “What?”

He puts his hand on my cheek. “Are you sure you’re okay?” I nod against his hand. “I don’t believe that. What’s wrong?”

I close my eyes and take a deep breath. When I look back to his face, he’s smiling gently at me and his thumb is moving back and forth on my cheek. “I don’t know. It’s just weird, I guess. I feel like I’m so new to all this and here you are…”

He chuckles. “It’s okay,” he says and then he kisses me. “If your kissing is any indication, I think you’re going to figure it out pretty easily.” I bite my lip and feel myself blushing. “You’re cute,” he says. “Like unbearably cute.”

I laugh a little through my nose. “You’re cuter,” I say and then I kiss him again.

He smiles at me. “Okay, let’s get you home.”


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victor's POV
> 
> This is mostly a scene that actually occurs in episode 1x9 but with some tweaking to go with this canon-divergence.  
> This chapter is really short because I need to switch to Benji's POV for the next part.

“I’ll walk you up,” Benji says when we get to the door of my apartment building.

I shake my head. “You don’t have to do that. You don’t need to bear witness to the holy mess that’s going on up there. Tomorrow will be bad enough,” I say with a sigh.

“Are you sure?”

I nod. “Thank you. For today. For walking me home. For everything,” I say with a smile. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He smiles at me like he’s thinking for a second and then wraps his arms around my waist and leans up to kiss me. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he says and then he unwraps himself and gives a little wave before disappearing back toward his house. I sigh and stare after him for a minute before going inside.

I get to the landing in time to hear the yelling. “You screwed up, too,” my mom’s voice says and I crack open the door. “If you hadn’t beaten the crap out of Roger after what happened, you wouldn’t’ve been fired and we would have never had to move here.” I step inside and close the door before my dad can speak. He looks up at me and then my mom turns, too. My mom crosses her arms and looks at my dad.

My dad sighs as he speaks. “Hey, Victor, um, we were just…”

“Fighting,” I supply. “Yeah, what’s new?” I step toward the table. “Dad beat up his boss?”

My mom looks at me and nods. “We didn’t wanna overwhelm you guys with all the details.”

“Right, but you’re cool with overwhelming us with your constant fighting.” My mom’s eyes go wide and they look at each other for a second. “You don’t think we could all tell how off you guys are?”

“You and Pilar know we’ve been having some problems,” my mom says, and she looks at my dad who’s refusing to look at her, “but I don’t think Adrian…”

“Adrian can sense it, too. He’s little. He’s not dumb. Look I get that you guys are going through something. And I’m sorry. I’m sorry it’s been so hard for you guys; I really am. But you make this house feel like a shitty place to come home to.” They both look at me and I take a deep breath. “You need to do better. For all of us.” My dad looks down at his lap while my mom continues to look at me. “I’m sorry for swearing. But, uh, I’m gonna go ahead and take a shower.”

As I walk back the hall, I poke my head in Pilar’s room. “You guys okay?”

Pilar nods. “Can I borrow ten bucks for ice cream?”

I laugh and pull out my wallet. “Yeah, alright, go on before they close,” I say as I hand her a ten-dollar bill.

I go to my room and get my pajamas and clean boxers, dropping my backpack onto the chair in the process. My phone vibrates as I walk into the bathroom, so I check it. It’s a text from Benji. _Hope everything’s okay. Here if you need to talk._

I think he might actually be perfect. _I’m okay. I’ll call you in a bit. About to get in the shower._

I set the phone on the side of the sink and undress. After my shower, I dry off and pull on my clean boxers and pajama pants before picking up my phone and dirty clothes and heading back to my room. I flop backwards onto my bed and sigh as I stare at the ceiling. Then I pull my phone out and call Benji.

“Hey,” he says. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah. Uh, my parents were fighting. I kind of went off on them, honestly. I don’t know. Pilar took Adrian for ice cream. Did you talk to your mom?”

He laughs. “I, uh, just got home and decided to sit on the porch and talk to you first. Because honestly, I’m not sure I want to know what that conversation is going to be.”

I smirk. “While I appreciate you wanting to talking to me. Maybe you should go talk to her first and then you can call me back if you want?”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. I’m totally fine. I should actually do my homework anyway.”

He chuckles. “I should, too.”

“You were sitting in the café for 4 hours and you didn’t get your homework done?”

“I was distracted by the cute barista boy that kept winking at me.”

“My bad,” I say. “I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

“Okay,” he says. He pauses for a second. “Bye.”

I laugh. “Bye.”

And then I end the call before we can get sucked into a loop of ‘you hang up first’.


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Benji's POV
> 
> Talk with his mom and then calling Victor.
> 
> TW: Anxiety/Thought Spirals/Previous Bad Relationship Dynamics

I look at my phone and see that he actually hung up and sigh a little. I guess I actually have to go inside now. I get to my feet and take a deep breath as I open the front door. My mom is standing almost exactly where I left her. “Hi,” I say, closing the door behind myself. “Did you just stand there the whole time?” She nods. I roll my eyes. “So, what do you want?”

“You have a new boyfriend?”

“Yes. You just met him.”

“Is he aware that you’re recently out of a relationship?”

I roll my eyes. “Yes, and he actually is, too. It’s complicated.”

“Does he know about Derek?”

I laugh. “He’s met Derek. So, yeah,” I say nodding. “Not sure why that matters.”

She shrugs. “You were with Derek for a long time,” she says. “He’ll always be part of your story.” I take a deep breath and sigh it out. “Don’t sigh at me like that.”

“Sorry, sorry. You’re just being really weird.”

“How old is this new boyfriend?”

I close my eyes. “Sixteen.”

She looks shocked. “Oh. Wow.”

I laugh through my nose. “Is that all?”

“Where did you meet him?”

“Technically school, but we work together.”

“Wait, is he the one you went to the birthday party for?”

“Yes,” I say, nodding slowly.

“So, you’ve met his family…”

“Sort of. That day was a little weird. But, uh, I’m meeting his parents again tomorrow… and I’ve definitely met his sister.”

“Tomorrow?”

I groan. “The dance. We’re going to the dance and his mom invited everyone for pictures beforehand, so yeah.”

“Oh! I didn’t know there was a dance.”

“Jesus Christ. Yes, the Spring Fling is tomorrow night. And I’m going… with Victor. Are you done interrogating me now?”

“I’m just trying to keep up with you, Benji…”

“You never tried to keep up with me when I was with Derek,” I say, probably more sharply than I mean to. She swallows and looks at me for a second. “That’s what I thought.”

“He wasn’t good for you,” she says. “He didn’t treat you right. You always came home upset after you were with him. I didn’t like it. I didn’t like seeing you like that.”

“You sound like Lucy,” I sigh.

“Well, Lucy’s right,” she says. “You seem happier…”

I sigh. “I… I am.”

“Good,” she says. “If you’re happy, I am. No pretending this time, okay?”

I roll my eyes. “Yeah. Can I go to my room now? I have homework.”

She nods. “Yeah, alright.”

“Thanks,” I say and I take the stairs two at a time. I can feel her watching me, so I don’t look back. I close my door behind myself and flop face first onto my bed with a loud groan. It seems impossible that just 45 minutes ago, Victor was laying in this bed with me. I wish I’d had more time with him, but I don’t want to be that person. If he said he had to go home; he had to go home. I’m _not_ going to do to him what Derek always did to me. I will not be that person. I’m not going to guilt my boyfriend into spending time with me.

I sort of get lost in the thought spiral and it’s only when my phone vibrates in my pocket that I become aware again. I pull out the phone. It’s a text from Victor. _Is everything okay? It’s been almost an hour…_

I look at the time and okay, he’s right. Wow. I didn’t realize I’d been wallowing in my own eternal dread that long. I sigh and press send on his number instead of responding. I want to hear his voice. He answers on the first right. “There you are. Did you forget to call me back?” he asks with a chuckle.

“Not exactly,” I say. And I guess my voice must betray me because he’s suddenly concerned and it kind of breaks me.

“Are you okay? What happened?”

“I’m… I’m fine?” I say, but it comes out as a question.

“That sounded like a question,” he says and I sigh. “What’s wrong?”

“Uh… I talked to my mom. She’s being weird, but whatever…”

“Okay…” He knows that isn’t all.

“Um, I’ve been laying face-down in my bed for like 45 minutes, I admit. I didn’t realize it’d been that long.”

“Why? Are you okay?” he asks again.

“Anxiety. Thought spiral. Your text pulled me out of it or I might have been there all night honestly,” I say. I don’t know why I’m telling him this. I don’t talk to anyone about this; definitely not my parents; not Derek; not even Lucy; but for some reason the sound of his voice just makes me relax and feel like I can be myself without judgment.

“Oh,” he says quietly. “Um, I don’t know what to say. Is there anything I can do?”

“No,” I say. “Well, talking to you is helping.”

“Well, I’ve got all night. I can’t promise I’ll say anything helpful, but I will definitely listen as long as you need me to.” I wish I could hug him. Not even kiss him, just hug him. He’s so perfect, I think I might cry.

“You’re amazing,” I say.

He laughs a little through his nose. “If you say so.”

“I do,” I insist. “I’ve… I’ve never really talked to anyone about this... Other than that therapist I had to see as part of the penalty for the accident. But I only saw her a few times. But for some reason, it’s like I just know you aren’t going to judge me?”

“I’m not,” he says. “I think you’re an amazing person, Benji. Exactly like you are.” And that’s all it takes. Now I’m actually crying and I guess he can hear me, because he says, “Don’t cry.” And then it sounds like he might be crying, too.

“Too late,” I mutter.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” I say. “It’s not your fault your so good with words.”

“I’m really not though,” he says.

“Well, you are right now.”

“Okay. Are you okay?”

“I’m better,” I say. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” he says and then we’re quiet for a few long seconds. “Do you… do you want to talk about it? I mean your anxiety thing?”

I swallow. “I don’t know,” I admit. “I feel kind of bad dumping that all on you.”

“I told you, I’ll listen. I can’t promise I’ll say anything helpful, but I’m willing to listen to you all night if you need it.”

“Don’t you have homework?” I ask.

“It’s fine.”

“Vic…” I say. “School is more important than this.”

“No, it’s not,” he insists. “I want to make sure you’re okay. I’m not going to be able to work on anything until I know that.”

I sigh again. “How are you so perfect?”

He laughs. “I am not perfect.”

“You are,” I say. “I don’t even have words for it, but you make me feel so… so… cared for? I don’t think that’s quite it. It’s new to me. To have someone that actually wants to listen to me and not for their own gain, but for mine. I don’t know. It’s… it’s nice.”

“I’m sorry you haven’t had someone to talk to before,” he says quietly. “I… I’m always here if you need me, okay? No matter what.”

“Thank you,” is all I can manage to say, because I’m crying again. He doesn’t say anything, but I can hear him breathing. He just waits and it’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for me. He’s not even doing anything and I just. I want to hug him and tell him how amazing he is, because he really and truly is. I finally manage to find my voice a few minutes later. “Thank you,” I say again.

“You’re welcome,” he says. “Are you okay?”

I laugh a little through my nose. “Honestly, yeah. I am. It’s so dumb, but I do feel better.”

“Good,” he says. “Crying does that sometimes.”

“Yeah,” I say. “I… do you still want to hear about the anxiety thing?”

“If you want to talk about it.”

“When I was talking to my mom… she brought Derek up.”

“Why?”

I sigh. “I don’t know. She asked if you knew about him and I told her you did and asked her why that mattered. She said something about him always being part of my story because we were together so long.”

“Oh,” he says. “I thought she was happy you broke up?”

“She is,” I say. “Um, she always said I was always upset when I came home from being with him, which if I’m being fair is mostly true. He… he wasn’t a great boyfriend.”

“So, why did you stay with him for so long?”

I sigh. “I don’t know. I think because for a few months, he was the only person that knew I was gay and then he became the only person other than my family that knew about the accident and he was my first boyfriend. And I guess I sort of romanticized the idea of finding ‘the one’ right away so I lied to myself for a long time. And Lucy always could tell and so could my mom, I guess. There was something wrong, but I just wouldn’t let go and no one wanted to push me because they were afraid that I’d start drinking again, or well my mom was afraid of that. I’m not sure what Lucy’s excuse was since she doesn’t know about that.”

“Oh,” he says, quietly.

“But anyway, when I came back up here after I talked to my mom, I… I don’t know how to say this that doesn’t sound weird…”

“It’s okay,” he says. “Use whatever words you have. I’m not judging.”

I swallow. “I… I started thinking about how you had just been here and how much I wished you were still here,” I admit. “I, uh… this is so dumb. I really just wanted a hug. But, anyway…”

“That’s not dumb,” he says. “I would hug you right now if I could.”

“Thanks,” I say. “But I guess that lead me to thinking about all the times I’d told Derek I needed to go home or didn’t want to be somewhere and how he’d always guilt me into staying and he’d make me feel bad for wanting to leave concerts and whatever. It… it scared me because I don’t want to be like that.”

“You’re not,” he says. “You won’t be.”

I take a deep breath. “I think I know that realistically, but it just sort of snowballed in my head and I couldn’t get out of it… until my phone vibrated in my pocket because you texted me.”

“Well, I’m glad I texted you, then.”

“Me, too,” I say. “Thank you for... for listening to all that.”

“Anytime. I mean that. Even if it’s two in the morning. If you need me, I will answer.”

“You’re amazing,” I say, trying not to start crying again.

“What? Just because I’m a good person?”

I laugh a little. “Something like that.”

“Hey, it’s going to be okay,” he says. “I promise.”

“I’m glad you’re so confident.”

“I… I just know how much I care about you, Benji. And… I... I don’t know. This is so new and it’s weird, but I really, really care about you,” he says. “So much.”

I can’t help but smile. “I… I care about you a lot, too, Vic. So much it’s a little scary sometimes, if I’m being honest. But… you’re worth it.” He doesn’t respond right away. “Also, I feel a lot better now, so you can go get that homework done and I’ll see you at school, okay?”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive. I still need to finish mine, too, remember?”

He laughs a little. “Sorry for being so distracting.”

“Do not apologize for that,” I tell him. “It was nice. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay. Bye.”

“Bye,” I whisper and then he ends the call. I sigh and roll onto my back. I actually do feel a lot better after talking to him and it is really weird. If I hadn’t only been with him for a couple days, I might even say I love him. But it’s way too early for that. I sigh and sit up. I stare at my desk for a minute before getting up and walking over. I do actually manage to get homework done this time. And then I shower and crawl into bed.


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victor's POV
> 
> Friday at School

I walk to school with Felix on Friday and we don’t really talk about much of anything until we’re inside. “So, did you ask Lake to the dance?” I ask him.

“Yeah, I did,” he says, nodding uncomfortably. “She passed. Hard. So, I ended things, but you know. If she liked it, she should’ve put a boutonniere on it.”

Before I can even respond, Lake and Mia walk up to us. “Hi,” Mia says and I smile at her Felix looks at Lake and I can see the panic in his eyes.

“Hey,” I respond.

“Hey,” Lake says, looking at Felix and I think she might be about to apologize?

“What’s up?” Felix says.

Before anyone can say anything else, Wendy from my English class walks up next to Felix. “Hey guys, what’s up? Um, Felix…” she says and then under her breath, “come on Wendy, you can do this.” He’s staring at her. “Um, do you wanna go to the dance with me tonight?” _Twist._

Felix’s face lights up like a kid on Christmas. “Wow, yeah, no, I’d love to,” he says shaking his head and smiling at her. _Double Twist._

“Really? Wow, amazing. You won’t regret it. But, uh, if you do, please don’t tell me.” Without another word she takes off down the hall.

“Wow,” Felix says, turning back to Lake. “I can’t believe someone wants to be seen publicly with me at a dance.” I’m kind of proud of him.

“Uh, well, just so you know,” Lake says. “I actually have a date tonight, too, so.” The bell rings cutting her off. Mia gives her a look and I do, too, because as of lunchtime yesterday, no one other than me had a date. “See you tonight,” she says.

“See _you_ tonight,” Felix says. And they both turn to walk in opposite directions.

Mia’s eyes are huge when I look at her. “Yikes,” she says. “She doesn’t have a date.”

“I figured.”

Mia sighs and turns to go after Lake. “See you tonight,” she calls over her shoulder.

I laugh and nod. Benji walks up next to me a second later. “There you are,” he says and grabs my hand.

“Hey, sorry… Morning drama.”

He tilts his head at me. “Uh, Lake and Felix,” I explain. “She shot him down regarding the dance last night and then Wendy just asked him to the dance and he said yes… in front of Lake.”

“Yikes,” he says.

“It gets better,” I say as we start walking toward the gym. “Lake said she had a date, too, but as soon as they were gone. Mia told me that’s not true, so I’m interested to see what happens tonight, honestly.”

He chuckles. “Well, I’ll be there with the most handsome guy I’ve ever seen, so it won’t be too bad.” I roll my eyes at him and shake my head. He laughs. When we reach the gym hallway, he stops in front of me and puts his hand on my cheek. “I’ll see you after class,” he says and then he kisses me before he walks away. I stare after him for a minute and chuckle to myself before I go into the locker room.

Andrew, Kieran, and Teddy are all not there yet, which is unusual, but not unheard of. I change into my gym uniform and just as I’m about to head out of the locker room the three of them come in. “I can’t believe you,” Teddy is saying.

“What? I told you. I like bossy women,” Kieran says.

Teddy rolls his eyes and turns to Andrew. “And you, you’re going to ask Mia now, aren’t you?”

“I…” Andrew says and then his eyes land on me. “I don’t know.”

“What happen to single bros laughing at all the lame-ass couples?” Teddy says; I don’t think he and Kieran have noticed me.

“Hi guys,” I say, walking up to them. “Do I wanna know what you’re talking about?”

Teddy turns to me. “Oh, hey Salazar. Lake asked Kieran to the dance. Or well, she more so told him he was going to the dance with her.”

I nod. “That’s one way to solve her problem?”

“What problem?”

I shake my head. “Nothing. Never mind. Forget I said anything.”

Andrew raises an eyebrow and me and I nod once. I know he knows what I’m talking about thanks to Benji’s accidental disclosure at Lunch yesterday.

“We should change,” Kieran says. “We’re gonna be late.”

Andrew waves hi hand at them. “Go on then,” he says and then he waits until they’re around the corner. “Um, Salazar,” he says and I look at him. “One: What issue?”

“Lake turned Felix down last night. Wendy asked Felix to the dance this morning and he agreed… in front of Lake. So, she said she had a date, too, when we all knew she didn’t.”

“Ah,” he says. “That makes sense. I think. Um, so… would it be weird if I ask Mia?”

I laugh. “I don’t care. I’m going with Benji. Ask her if you want.”

He nods. “Uh, just wanted to check first, you know.”

I chuckle. “Sure, Andrew. You didn’t check before you kissed her on Saturday, but yeah, why not. We’ll pretend you’re being a gentleman.” I don’t wait for his response before pushing the door open and crossing the hall into the gym.

Andrew doesn’t say anything else to me during class or in the locker room after and Benji’s waiting for me in the hallway after I change. “Hey,” I say and then I kiss him.

He smirks at me. “Hey yourself. Ready for tonight?”

“ _God_. I should be asking you that. You’re the one that has to meet my parents. I live with them,” I say as he grabs my hand and we head down the hallway. “Also, apparently Lake told Kieran he’s going to the dance with her.”

Benji chuckles. “Which one is he?”

“I don’t know if you know him. But he’s really tall. He’s on the basketball team with me. He’s friends with Andrew. And speaking of Andrew, he asked my permission to ask Mia to the dance.”

“Why?”

“No idea. He didn’t seem to think that necessary when he kissed her on Saturday when we were still technically together,” I say, rolling my eyes. “Which I told him as much.”

“Your living room’s going to be awfully full isn’t it?”

“Full of drama,” I say with a sigh. “But maybe it’ll make my mom less embarrassing?”

He chuckles as we stop outside my class. “What time are we meeting anyway?”

“Oh, uh, I don’t think it’s been discussed. Um, the dance is at 7, right?” He nods. “So, 6, I guess? I don’t wanna give her too much time.”

He chuckles. “Sounds good. If you weren’t so worried about your mom, I’d ask if I could come earlier. Because I really don’t want to not see you for what 3 hours?” He looks down. “That sounds really clingy and I’m sorry.”

I laugh and put my hand under his chin to pull his face back up. “It’s okay. I’d rather spend my afternoon with you, too, but unfortunately my mom will be home and my dad will probably get there before 6.”

He sighs. “Okay.”

“I mean it,” I say, putting my hand on his cheek. “I want to spend as much time with you as possible. I just don’t want to subject you to my mom’s antics for longer than necessary.”

He smiles. “It’s okay. We have all night at the dance.”

“Yeah, with a thousand other people around.”

He laughs. “True. Maybe we can sneak away. Think they’ll notice?”

I laugh. “Depends how much drama happens,” I tell him. “You’re such a bad influence. Skipping class yesterday, suggesting sneaking away from the dance…”

He smirks. “Sorry. I just like spending time with you. Especially when that time can be spent kissing you.” He kisses me briefly as the bell rings. “I need to go to class, but I’ll see you after, okay?”

“Okay,” I say and I smile after him until he goes around the corner.

In Health, Andrew makes his move. “Hey, Mia,” he says as soon as she sits down.

“Yes, Andrew?” she asks, clearly annoyed.

“Oh, um… I mean… seeing as Lake’s going to the dance with Kieran… I was thinking… maybe we could go together?” he says. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him this nervous before. I usually almost forget that he’s human let alone has feelings.

Mia rolls her eyes and shakes her head for a second. “Yeah, okay, why not. But we’re just going to the dance, _as friends_. That’s it,” she says.

“Okay,” he agrees. “That’s all I was asking about.” I think he looks a little disappointed and I almost laugh.

She nods and pulls out her textbook. Felix is looking at Lake and she’s trying not to meet his eyes. “Kieran?” he asks, incredulously.

Lake shrugs. “Yeah, what about it?”

Felix shakes his head and turns around as Ms. Thomas walks in to start class. My phone vibrates a minute later and I check it under my desk. It’s a text from Felix. _Do you know anything about this?_

I glance at him and nod. He stares at me. I type back. _Later._ Before putting my phone back into my pocket. I do _not_ want to join them in Saturday detention.

After fourth period, I’m actually waiting for Benji for a change, but he shows up after less than a minute. “Hey,” I say and then I kiss him.

“Hey,” he says back. “Where are we sitting?”

“Good question,” I say and look around. “I really don’t feel like dealing with the awkwardness that is the Lake and Felix situation.”

He nods. “I hear that. Do you mind sitting with Lucy?”

I shrug. “That’s fine.”

“Are you sure, because we could definitely go find a corner to hide in by ourselves instead,” he says with a mischievous smirk.

“Are you suggesting the kind of corner where we could do more kissing than eating lunch?” I ask, leaning my shoulder against him.

He chuckles. “It’s definitely possible.”

And that’s what we do. We find a corner of the courtyard that’s out of everyone else’s view and put our jackets on the grass to sit on. There’s definitely more kissing than eating and honestly, I just want to stay right here forever. “Can we just skip the afternoon and stay here,” I ask, laying my head against his shoulder.

He chuckles. “If I didn’t have a chemistry test, I would be willing to consider it.”

I groan. “Fine, fine.” I pull out my phone to check the time and realize I have a handful of missed texts. “Oops.”

“What?”

“Everyone has been texting me all period,” I say as I start responding.

He chuckles and looks at his own phone. “Lucy texted me, but that’s it.”

“Yeah, well, too many people are supposed to be coming to my apartment tonight for pictures, so I should probably convey those details.”

“Oops. Yeah, true.”

Once I’ve responded to everyone, there’s only five minutes left in the period and Benji is staring at me, licking his lips. “Stop that,” I say.

“What?”

“Licking your lips at me.”

“Make me,” he says and pouts a little. I roll my eyes and kiss him. It was meant to be a brief kiss, but he catches my head in his hands and holds me there. I don’t complain. We just kiss until the bell rings and then we float apart with a mutual sigh. “Stupid bell,” he says. “Ruins everything.”

“Seriously,” I agree and then I get to my feet and offer him my hand.


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victor's POV
> 
> Pre-Dance Pictures with the Salazars.

I let Pilar have the shower first; she has to do her makeup, so it’ll take her longer. Once I’m showered and in my suit, I stare at the two ties I own. Both are black, one’s a bow tie and the other a standard tie. I hold them both up in front of the mirror, but can’t decide, so I cross the hall to Pilar’s doorway. She’s doing her makeup at the vanity.

“Hey, um,” I say and she glances up at me. “Which of these do you think I should wear?”

“Shouldn’t you ask your boyfriend?”

“I mean, I could, but you’re right here.”

She rolls her eyes. “Bow tie.”

“Thanks, hermana.” She chuckles. “Pretty crazy about dad punching his boss, huh?”

“Yep, not surprised he kept if from us though.” She finishes putting on lip gloss.

“Yeah,” I agree. “Thanks again.”

She chuckles. “You seem nervous.”

I shrug. “A little maybe.”

“Why?”

“Cause we haven’t been on a real date yet, so this is kind of… the first one, I guess.”

She chuckles. “Right, because you, what? Made out after work the other day and almost missed curfew, skipped fourth period the next day to make out… in the art supply closet, went to his house after work yesterday presumably to make out some more, and skipped lunch today to make out god knows where…”

“Shush,” I say, glancing down the hall to make sure my parents aren't within earshot.

“All I'm saying is you’ve clearly got the making out part down. And all of Creekwood is definitely aware,” she says, making a face.

“Is it that bad?” I ask

She chuckles. “Well, let’s just say I was never concerned you were going to swallow Mia’s face. Benji’s on the other hand, I have questions.”

I close my eyes and put my face in my hands. She laughs. “Get out of my room,” she says and she shoos me with one hand.

“Alright, alright,” I say, backing into the hallway.

“Close the door?” she asks as she gets up and walks toward her closet.

I roll my eyes and sigh, but pull the door shut as I go back to my own room.

I have my tie on and check the time. 5:45. I sit down at my desk until I’m startled by a knock on the door. “I thought you said 6?” my mom says from her room.

“I did. It’s probably just Felix,” I say as I walk to the door. And sure enough, it is indeed Felix on the other side of the door. “Where’s Wendy?”

“On her way,” he says and comes in without being asked. “Am I the first one here?”

“Felix, you’re 15 minutes early. _Yes_ , you’re the first one here.” He shrugs and sits down on the could next to Adrian.

My phone vibrates in my pocket as I close the door and follow Felix into the living room. It’s a text from Benji. _Leaving my house now. See you so soon. [kissy face emoji]_

I laugh a little through my nose and sit in the chair next to the couch as I respond. _Can’t wait. [kissy face emoji]_

“Benji?” Felix asks when I look up. I nod. He rolls his eyes. “Where were you two at lunch anyway?”

“Um,” I scratch the back of my neck as I look down nervously. “Outside.” He gives me a look that says he doesn’t believe me. “We were. We were just… in a corner of the courtyard no one goes to. Sitting on our jackets in the grass…”

Felix tilts and shakes his head. “Ah, young love.” I roll my eyes. “Wait you said you knew something about Kieran and Lake…”

“Oh, right. Um, I found out in the locker room this morning that Lake basically walked up to the three of them, Teddy, Kieran, and Andrew, and told Kieran he was going to the dance with her. She didn’t even ask. I knew she didn’t have a date.”

“Weird.”

“Pretty sure she’s just trying to make you jealous, dude.”

He shrugs. “Well, whatever. Why does that even matter? I’m going to the dance with Wendy and we’re going to have an awesome time.”

“Okay,” I say and I’m not going to push the subject.

Felix’s phone vibrates a second later. He looks at it and types a response. “Wendy’s almost here,” he says.

My phone vibrates a second later with a text from Mia and a second after that with a text from Lake; both saying they’re on their way with dates in tow. I look up at Felix. “Mia and Lake are on their ways, too.”

“Cool, cool,” he says.

Adrian looks at me. “How many people are coming?” he asks with wide eyes.

“Uh, you know Mia.”

“Your girlfriend.” _Oops._

“Uh, she’s not my girlfriend anymore,” I say and I realize I should have explained this to him before now. “Uh, I have a boyfriend now, he’s coming, too.”

“Why do you have a boyfriend? You are a boy…”

I sigh. “Because I’m gay,” I say. He tilts his head at me. “It means I like boys instead of girls. Is that okay?”

He shrugs. “Sure, whatever,” he says. “But how many people are coming?”

“Oh, uh, Mia is coming with my teammate Andrew, and Lake, she was at my birthday party, remember?” he nods. “She’s coming with my other teammate Kieran. And a girl from school, Wendy is coming, because she’s going to the dance with Felix. And Benji, my, uh, boyfriend.”

“Benji…” he says, thinking. “Wasn’t he at your birthday, too?”

I nod. “Yeah, he was there with his old boyfriend, Derek, but they’re not together anymore.”

“And now he’s your boyfriend?”

“Right.”

Adrian shrugs again. “Okay.”

My mom, dad, and sister walk out a minute later. “Oh, hello, Felix,” my mom says.

“Hey, Mrs. S.”

“Who are you taking to the dance?”

“Uh, Wendy. She’s in English class with me and Victor.”

“Very nice,” my mom says, but Pilar is making a face, so I give her the stink eye. She laughs under her breath. “Victor, is everyone on their way?”

I nod. “Yep, should be here momentarily.” No sooner do the words come out of my mouth than there’s a knock on the door. I jump up to open it. It’s Mia and Andrew.

“Hey,” Mia says. “You look nice.” She wiggles my bow tie and Andrew gives me a look.

“Thanks,” I say. “You do, too. And you Andrew, but not in a weird way.”

He laughs. “Yeah, alright. Your loverboy here yet?”

I shake my head. “He’s on his way.” I gesture toward the living room. “I guess we’ll do this in there?”

Mia nods and walks a head of Andrew into the living room. “Hi Isabel,” she says to my mom.

“Mia, honey, that dress is gorgeous!”

“Thank you,” Mia says quietly as I walk back to the doorway. My parents are looking at me.

“Oh, uh, clearly you know Mia. This is Andrew. He’s on the basketball team with me.”

“Nice to meet you,” my dad says, stretching out his hand to shake Andrew’s.

Then there’s another knock on the door and I go to answer it. “Hey, Wendy, come on in,” I say and glance over my shoulder, hoping I said her name loud enough for Felix to hear. Apparently I did or he was watching because he appears in the doorway to the living room a second later and she hurries to join him.

Before I can get the door closed, Lake and Kieran show up, too. “Hey guys,” I say. “Lake that dress… is so red! It looks great on you.”

She chuckles. “Thank you, Victor.”

They pause right inside the door. “Uh, living room," I say, gesturing. And I follow them in after I close the door. “Mom, Dad, you’ve met Mia’s friend Lake and this is Kieran. He’s also on the basketball team with me.” My dad shakes Kieran’s hand, too and then my mom is looking at me expectantly. “He’s walking. He should be here any minute,” I say with an exasperated sigh.

And finally there’s another knock on the door and sprint to open it. I’m about to throw my arms around his neck when he steps back and holds up his hands. There’s a coffee cup in each of them. “Sorry I took so long. Sarah was by herself,” he says with a wink and hands me the cup of cold brew. “But I thought you’d appreciate that.”

My eyes go wide as I take it. “You're amazing. I could kiss you.”

He laughs. “You’re allowed,” he says with a wink and so I do, but just for a second because I’m very aware of the fact that my entire immediate family and 6 classmates are in the next room. I grab his free hand with mine and take a sip of my coffee as I pull him toward the living room.

My parents are both staring expectantly at us, so I take a deep breath and roll my eyes. “Mom, Dad… this is Benji. Benji, my parents,” I say as they walk over. I drop his hand because my dad is stretching one out.

“Very nice to meet you,” my dad says.

“Likewise, Mr. Salazar,” Benji says.

“You can call me Armando,” he says and Benji nods.

“Coffee?” my mom asks tilting her head.

“Yes, because I have the actual best boyfriend on the planet,” I say as if that’s obvious, because it kind of is. “Also, why he was late,” I add and then I take another sip of the cold brew. It’s like heaven in a cup.

“Well, set the coffee cups down, and all of you, line yourselves up,” she says, shooing us toward the fireplace.

My mom proceeds to take an embarrassing number of pictures and somewhere in the middle, Felix and Wendy are bonding over homemade cosmetics when Lake suddenly pulls Kieran’s arm over her shoulder and tries to make a scene even though it’s obvious, he has no idea what’s going on. Like I said earlier…

My mom has us all turn to the side, hands on waists. The cute pre-dance thing. Benji leans his head against my shoulder. “What, you wanna switch?” I ask.

“Nope. This is perfect,” he says. He puts his hands on mine and pulls my arms tighter around him. I chuckle as my mom takes another picture. My mom tries to get Adrian to stand with my sister, but Pilar throws his hands off and storms away behind my parents toward the door.

Finally, I have to put an end to this. “Okay, we’re good,” I say. “Wait here,” I whisper to Benji and then I walk over to my parents. “Alright, I think we’re gonna get going,” I say.

“Okay, well, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” my dad says.

My mom slaps his shoulder. “Don’t tell him that!”

“You guys seem good actually.”

“Yeah,” my mom says as they exchange a look. “We are. After you yelled at us, we stayed up all night; had a long talk.”

“Hey, we heard you loud and clear,” my dad says. “And we’re going to figure out how to be better for you guys.”

“So, go,” my mom says. “Have a good time with that boyfriend." She glances behind me. "He’s been staring at you since you walked away," she adds in a whisper.

I close my eyes and exhale through my nose. “Yeah, okay.”

“I want to meet him for real, though,” my dad says. “None of this showing up after everyone else to avoid the spotlight charade.”

I roll my eyes. “Yeah, alright, we’ll talk about it.”

My dad laughs and claps me on the shoulder. “Go on, Macho. Have a good time.”


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victor's POV
> 
> Spring Fling! This is the last chapter of this fic. I'm sorry I don't resolve anything with anyone other than Victor and Benji, but *shrug*.

“I’m not walking to the school in heels,” Pilar says when we get outside.

“I’m borrowing my mom’s car,” Felix says. “You can ride with us.”

“Perfect. Thank you,” she says and starts to follow Felix and Wendy.

Kieran is already holding his passenger door open for Lake and Andrew is doing the same for Mia, I just stop and smile at them for a minute. “Do you mind walking?” I ask Benji.

He shrugs. “No heels to worry about here.”

I chuckle and we turn to start walking away, when Andrew calls out. “Salazar!”

I roll my eyes and turn around. “What?”

“Are you guys seriously going to walk?”

“That’s the plan.”

“Get in. You can ride with us,” he says before getting into his driver’s seat. I look at Benji and he shrugs, so we go and get into the back seat of Andrew’s Audi. “Keep you hands to yourselves, back there,” Andrew says, laughing a little as he turns the car on.

Benji chuckles and grabs my hand on the seat between us. I shake my head, but twine my fingers with his. I’m sure this isn’t what Andrew was forbidding. Andrew turns to look over his shoulder as he starts to back out of the parking space and his eyes drop to our hands for a second. He rolls his eyes and continues what he’s doing.

When he parks at the school, he opens his door. “Out!”

So Benji and I get out while he zips around the front of the car to offer his hand to Mia. He’s trying. I’ll give him that. Benji joins me at the back of Andrew’s car and takes my hand. We barely make it to the sidewalk before he stops and looks at me with a little smirk on his face. “What?”

“You look so hot in that suit,” he says, his eyes dropping over me. “It’s been taking everything in me to not kiss you all night.”

I laugh a little. “So, shut up and kiss me then.” He does and it’s like heaven.

“Get a room,” someone jeers. I don’t even know who and I really don’t care. That is until she walks closer. “I seriously just talked to you about this…” she says more quietly.

I groan and pull away from Benji. “Shut up,” I tell my sister and she laughs.

“I’m just saying. No one needs to see you swallowing each other’s faces.”

“Yeah,” I say and shake my head. I grab Benji’s hand. “I guess we’re supposed to go inside and… dance or something?” I say looking at him.

He chuckles and once my sister gets far enough ahead of us, he leans toward my ear. “We are definitely sneaking away from this dance. I was not done kissing you.” I turn my head to smirk at him for a second. “Only if you want to,” he adds.

“I want to,” I say. “But we can’t disappear right away. Someone will notice.”

“Everyone noticed when we skipped lunch and we still did that,” he says with a wink.

I can’t help but laugh and then I sigh. “Okay, but we need to go to the dance for a little so I have something to tell my parents about when they ask how the dance was.”

“That is the best argument against sneaking away I’ve heard all night,” he agrees.

I’m confused what room we’re even in, but it’s densely packed with people and there’s a DJ on a stage playing dance music. A table full of snacks and punch is near the door. “Do you want to dance?” he asks.

“Not really,” I say. “I’m not a great dancer.”

He chuckles. “Neither am I, but I am making you do at least one slow dance with me.”

I smile at him. “I think I can handle that. Do you want a drink or a snack maybe? I didn’t really eat much at dinner.”

He chuckles. “Yeah, me either,” he agrees and we walk toward the snack table.

We find a place to sit and drink silly little glasses of fruit punch and eat fancy pastries and then he mumbles something about needing to go to the bathroom and I realize I do, too so I follow him into the hallway. He looks around after we wash our hands and then he smirks at me and whispers, “We could hide in here for a while.” And while high school bathrooms are probably the most disgusting place ever, I don’t even care.

We’re kissing for I don’t know how long and he’s pressed up against the wall. We’re both out of breath, but we don’t even care because this kiss is perfect. Every kiss with Benji is perfect. I could kiss him forever and never get tired of it. Then the door opens and I don’t even notice at first, because I don’t want to stop kissing him. And then I hear a chuckle and someone clearing their throat, so I close my eyes for a second and then turn around. It’s Andrew, because of course it is.

“In the bathroom?” he says. “Really? Kinda gross don’t you think?”

He doesn’t even wait for us to respond before going into one of the stalls and closing the door. I look at Benji and he’s smirking at me. He kisses me quickly and then says, “He has a point.”

I roll my eyes, but nod. “Alright, let’s go back to the dance,” I say with mock enthusiasm.

He chuckles and grabs my hand, pulling me out of the bathroom and back into the party. “We should actually dance,” he says and I groan, but let him pull me onto the dance floor. It’s actually fun after a while and it doesn’t hurt that he keeps randomly kissing me every minute or two. Then the DJ announces he’s putting a slow song on for ‘all the couples out there,’ and Benji wraps himself around me and I laugh. He’s only a couple inches shorter than me and he wraps his arms around my waist, so I wrap mine around his shoulders and he tilts his head up to smile at me. “Thank you,” he whispers.

“Why are you thanking me?”

He chuckles under his breath. “For dancing with me,” he says. “For not complaining about how stupid high school dances are…”

“High school dances aren’t stupid,” I say. “And this _is_ technically our first real date, so…”

He smiles at me for a second and I can’t help myself. I lean down and capture his lips in mine and then we’re doing more kissing than dancing and I think the song might change but I don’t care. That is until I hear someone gasp and then giggle next to us. I pull away and we both turn our heads. It’s Lucy and a girl I’ve never seen before. Benji rolls his eyes. “Hey, Luc. Maggie.”

“Benji. Victor,” Lucy says with a giddy little smile. “You know the slow song was like 5 tracks ago, right?”

I close my eyes and feel myself blushing. Benji chuckles and pulls me closer again. “I guess we got a little caught up in the moment.”

“I’d say,” the girl who must be Maggie says. “And who is this new boyfriend of yours?” She eyes me carefully.

“Oh, right, uh, Maggie, this is Victor. Victor, this is Lucy’s girlfriend, Maggie.”

“Nice to meet you,” I say smiling at her.

“You, too,” she says. “Come on, babe, we’re supposed to be dancing,” she adds, grabbing Lucy’s hand and dragging her away. Lucy waves to us as she follows after her girlfriend.

Once they’re far enough away I look back to Benji and he’s smiling at me. “Why have I never seen Maggie before?”

He shrugs. “She doesn’t go to Creekwood.”

“Oh.”

“She goes to some ritzy private school across town.”

“How did she and Lucy even meet then?”

He chuckles. “Uh, that’s a funny story actually. And one better told by Lucy.” I raise an eyebrow. “Believe me, it’s worth the wait. I’ll make sure she tells you on Monday.”

“So,” I say, looking around. “You got your one slow dance.”

He laughs under his breath and smirks at me. “You ready to get out of here?”

I shrug. “Maybe a little. We keep getting interrupted.”

He smiles at me for a second and then leans up and kisses me, before grabbing my hand and leading me toward the door. We pass Mia and Andrew, so I wave and they wave back. Mia smirks at us and shakes her head. Andrew is looking at her like he doesn’t actually believe she’s as happy as she is. I see both Lake and Felix at the punch bowl which is… interesting, but their backs are turned, so I have no idea what’s actually happening. We escape the crowd, but no sooner have we walked into the hallway than my sister is walking out of the girls’ bathroom.

“Where are you two going?” she asks with a raised eyebrow. We’re already past the guy’s bathroom. Benji squeezes my hand. I think he can sense my panic.

“Outside. To get some air. We’ll be back,” he says calmly.

Pilar gives me a look, but shrugs and walks back into the dance without asking questions. “Thank you,” I whisper to him and he chuckles as we keep walking.

“I was not about to let your sister ruin this,” he says a few seconds later.

We do actually end up outside. “Where are we going?” I ask.

He shrugs. “A bench?” he says, pointing.

“That’s still rather public, no?”

He shrugs. “But everyone’s inside.”

“For now,” I say. He chuckles and pulls me forward.

We sit next to each other on the bench for a second and then he turns to look at me. I laugh a little and open my arms toward him. He scoots closer and wraps his arms around my waist while I drop mine around his shoulder. He buries his face in my chest and I lean my cheek on the top of his head. “So much better than dancing,” he mumbles a second later. I hum in agreement and then lift my head from his.

“Look at me,” I say quietly. He chuckles a little but lifts his head and I can’t help but smile at him. He smiles back and then I lean down and press my lips to his. The kiss is slow and tender. Everything about this moment is perfect. He wiggles around in my arms so our heads are closer to level as he deepens the kiss and I feel his tongue on mine. I’m not sure how long we’re there, kissing like our lives depend on it, but when we finally break apart, he’s somehow ended up straddling my lap, a knee on either side of my hips. He presses his forehead against mine and chuckles.

“Might have gotten a little carried away,” he says quietly.

I can’t stop smiling. “I don’t think so. I think this is perfect,” I say and wrap my arms tightly around his waist, pulling his body against mine and then we’re kissing again. This kiss is as much unlike the last one as it’s possible to be. Nothing about it is slow. We’re kissing like it’s breathing, like neither one of us can get enough of the other. I wish we were somewhere alone. Not on a bench outside the school. The things I want to do to him in this moment, are _not_ appropriate for this setting, so I reluctantly pull away and sigh.

“Are you okay?” he asks. “Too much?”

I shake my head and laugh under my breath. “Uh, no. I really wish I could keep going, but, um, I don’t think this is the appropriate venue.” He smirks at me and slides off my lap, sitting next to me on the bench instead. My arm drapes around his shoulders and pulls him close to me and his hand lands on my thigh. “I’m sorry,” I whisper.

“Why are you apologizing?”

I shrug a little. “I really do want to spend all night kissing you,” I say, “but if you keep kissing me like that, I don’t think… well…”

He chuckles. “Yeah, me, too,” he says quietly. “It’s okay.” We’re quiet for a long minute, both of us still trying to catch our breath and I’m trying to calm myself down in other ways, too. “Do you work tomorrow?” he asks eventually.

“Mmm,” I say, thinking. “Yeah. I think I close.”

He smirks. “With me,” he adds. “I thought that’s what I saw on there.”

“Does Sarah work tomorrow?” I wonder.

He laughs. “I think she opens with Megan. Whitney’s the mid.”

“Which means…”

“Once Whitney leaves…”

We both laugh. “What time do you start?” I ask.

“1. Full 8 hours, because _assistant manager_ ,” he says glamorously and I laugh.

“I start at 3,” I say. “Maybe I’ll come hang out before. Sarah’ll probably leave when you get there anyway. It’s Saturday.”

“Probably,” he says smirking. He lifts his head from my shoulder and looks at me with a weird little smile for a second. Then he shakes his head.

“What?”

“Nothing. It’s dumb.”

“Doubtful,” I say. “What are you thinking?”

He tilts his head at me for a second and then shakes it again. “No.”

“Benji, come on. What are you thinking? I want to know.”

He reaches a hand up to my cheek and looks at me for a long second, I’m about to ask him again when he leans toward my lips and kisses me for an instant. “I love you,” he whispers. “And I know it’s way too soon to say that. And that’s why I didn’t want to tell you what I was thinking. And you definitely don’t have to say it back.”

He apparently doesn’t realize how much I’m smiling because he keeps going on and on. “Shut up,” I say finally and he looks at me. “I love you, too, you dork.” I tell him, shaking my head a little. “And that’s not dumb at all,” I add in a whisper and then I kiss him again for real.

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed this fic, please consider hopping over to tumblr and letting me know which concept you'd like to see next. I also accept prompts to my ask box.
> 
> https://onlyherefortheshowmances.tumblr.com/post/641578011049738240/some-venji-fic-ideas-that-ill-probably-write-all


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